Nancy Henley
Personal
and Educational Background:
Born in 1934, Nancy
Henley’s original academic aspirations had little to do with psychology and
even less to do with feminism and gender dynamics. When she finished with high
school, she enrolled in Wilson’s Teacher’s College with the intention of
becoming an educator, a role stereotypically filled by women. Nonetheless, it
was here that Nancy was exposed to her first psychology courses. She became
utterly fascinated by what she was learning. Under the tutelage of a “very good
psychology teacher” there, Nancy developed an appetite for the field and began
taking more courses related to psychology than to education (Henley, 2005).
However, before she could complete the
program at Wilson, life intervened and Nancy left the school to marry and raise
children. Not long after, though, she returned to night school at John Hopkins
University where she made the most of the psych credits she had earned at
Wilson and finished her Bachelor’s degree in 1964. Subsequently, she was
accepted into John Hopkins Graduate program under James Deese working with psycholinguistics
where she completed her Masters in 1967. One year later, she was awarded a PhD
in Experimental Psychology from the same institution.
A
Career Influenced by Feminism:
The notion
that psychology was a male-dominated field during her time was one that was not
lost on Nancy. In an interview conducted in 2005, she recounted a story from
her search for a suitable graduate school:
“…there were these little booklets that
had a few words about each school. Many actually had blatantly in their
listing, ‘Men Preferred.’”
But, her feminist sentiments were not fully awakened until
she became involved in an activist group that discussed racial issues. This
group slowly exposed her to the Women’s Movement.
As time
went on, Nancy became increasingly interested in study of gender and more
politically active in terms of empowering women in the professional psychology field.
Along with other notable feminists psychologists, like Phyllis Chesler and
Patricia Greenfield, Nancy began forming women’s groups at each institution she
worked/studied at. These groups would not only discuss gender and how it
related to psychology, but they also gathered data “about women and men at
various ranks” for the purposes of exposing gender inequalities (Henley, 2005).
In Nancy’s own words:
“…I think for academic women it was
sort of being second-class and you know we suspected a number of things. We
weren’t sure if we were getting less pay, or you know not being promoted or
hired as much…”
She, personally, drafted the groups’ findings into a series
of “resolutions and motions” that they collectively presented to the American
Psychology Association (APA) in an attempt to reveal the rampant androcentrism
that had been part of their practices for years (Henley, 2005).
It was also during this time that Nancy
began really studying how gender dynamics played a role in non-verbal
communication. Although she was the author of many scholarly articles
throughout her life, it was these studies that culminated in her most famous
work, Body Politics: Power, Sex, and
Non-Verbal Communication which was published in 1977. Through this very
influential text, Nancy posited the idea “that male dominance was maintained
and supported a lot through non-verbal communication, unconsciously…therefore
women and other people being dominated could be subordinated without their
knowledge” (Henley, 2005).
Her activism, her studies of
communication, her writings, her time spent as the director of Women’s Studies
at the University of California while simultaneously serving as editor of Psychology of Women Quarterly amounts to
impressive catalog of work. That’s why its not surprising that in 1996 Nancy
was awarded the Distinguished Contribution to Women in Psychology Award from
the APA Committee on Women in Psychology. Presently (and quite justifiably),
she is retired.
Relevance:
If there were
any one woman who seems to typify the classic feminists heroine, it would be
Nancy. Like most women of her day, every inch that she earned would have
counted as two for a man. She overcame the seemingly insurmountable androcentrism
of the education system to achieve her doctorate and then subsequently used
that knowledge to unite women and bring to light the male-biases of the current
establishment.
Her
research went further, though, exposing just how deep the gender-imbalance of
our society goes. By taking a hard look at the various ways in which we communicate,
Nancy revealed that women are being held down by more than just unabashed misogynism;
if true equality for the sexes is the end goal, then we as a society are going
to have to rework some our most basic functions (i.e. body language) – a revelation
that, I think, speaks to the very core of feminism in all its forms.
Most
notably, however, was Nancy’s activism of the 1960’s. It was because of her
work that the APA established its Division 35, which is now called the Society
for the Psychology of Women. This subsection of the APA serves a dual purpose:
first and foremost it is devoted to women’s studies, but just as important, it
“makes it unlikely that interest in the psychology of women and gender will
fade away as it did in the 1920’s” (Crawford). This is an important point,
because, based on this fact, one could argue that without the Society for the
Psychology of Women, we may not have the basis for the class we’re taking
today…Thank you, Nancy.
Works
Cited:
1.) Crawford,
M., & Unger, R. Women and Gender: A
Feminist Psychology.
2.) George,
Meghan. (2011). Profile of Nancy Henley. Retrieved from:
Accessed
September 23rd, 2012.
3.) Henley, N.
(2005, January 29). Interview by A. Rutherford and W. Pickren [Audio
Recording]. Psychology’s Feminist Voices Oral History and Online Archive
Project. Toronto, ON. Retrieved from:
Accessed
September 24th, 2012.
Accessed September 24th, 2012.
Picture Citation:
Accessed September 23rd, 2012.
Josh Meunier
Professor Hill
PSY 350
September 26th, 2012
