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Helen Bradford
Thompson Wolley was born on November 6th, 1874 in Chicago, Illinois.
Her parents were
advocates of educating women and as a result were very supportive of
Helen and
her two sister’s educational interests. She attended the University of Chicago
where she conducted the first major research on the differences between
men and
women. After completing the research and studying other literature she
found
that there were “marked inconsistencies, contradictions, and lack of
data
behind the conventional wisdom on sex differences,” based on
statistical data
obtained from her research. In 1897 she received her undergraduate
degree and in
1900 she received her PhD and graduated summa cum laude for studies
focused on
neurology and philosophy from the University of Chicago.
Later
she went on to publish her dissertation in 1903, she also received
a fellowship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. Helen also
taught at Mount
Holyoke College and was director
of the psychological lab and prof. of psychology in 1902. In 1905 she
married
Dr. Paul Woolley and moved to the Philippines and became the
chief
inspector of health in 1907. In 1908 she and her husband moved back to
the U.S
after the birth of their first child and she taught at the University of Cincinnati
for one year and then she became active in social reform dealing with
child
welfare and women’s rights. In 1911 she became the director of the
Bureau for
Investigation of Working Children. In 1921 Helen became the
psychologist on
staff at the Merrill-Palmer School in Detroit and in 1922 became
associate
director, this is when she organized one of the first nursery schools
for
studying child development and training teachers. After enduring many
stressful
events she became emotionally incapacitated in 1926 and was asked to
resign
from teaching in 1930. She spent the last 17 years of her life in her
daughter’s home and died from cardiovascular disease on December 24th 1947,
at the
age of 73.
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