In continuation of the post yesterday featuring the trailblazer and founding woman of the BPS (British Psychological Society), this post is about Beatrice Edgell, the first female president of the BPS.
Beatrice Edgell was born in Gloucestershire in 1871. Having support from her family, Beatrice attended Notting Hill High School for Girls to get an education. It was in 1894 when she received a BA in mental and moral sciences from the University of London. She received another BA in Philosophy in 1898 followed by a Master’s degree in 1899.
Edgell became really interested in applying a scientific methodology to the study of psychology and in a paper written in 1946 she said this:
“the most outstanding feature of psychology was the development of experimental and of quantitative methods.”
What’s especially interesting for me was the title of Edgell’s PhD dissertation “The Limits of the Experimental Method”. This is interesting to me as I’ve recently had to argue whether the benefits outweigh the drawbacks of the experimental method to complete my second module.
Edgell was successful and became the first woman to achieve a PhD in psychology.
Not satisfied with being the president of the BPS, Edgell was also the president of the Aristotelian Society, the Mind Association and the Psychological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
Edgell was the author of three books and over 30 published articles during the course of her career. Few have had this much impact in the field of psychology.
More info can be found here:
https://feministvoices.com/profiles/beatrice-edgell
Soo many cool women hidden in the pages of history, that we don't know about. Thank you!@Daniel Sumner for sharing this post with us and letting us know about these cool scientists.