Ethel Puffer Howes - Coursework Example

ETHEL PUFFER HOWES Ethel Puffer Howes remains a feminist icon who fought for recognition of women in the male dominated society. Her work in the society can be attributed to the supportive parents and strong will to work against the gender tide. As a great psychologist of all time her life began his career as a mathematics teacher under the tutelage of her mother Ella. Puffer’s career shift took place in 1895 when she went to Germany to study psychology. It is worth to note that her interest in this discipline was motivated by the emotional and physical oppression which female students went through in the hands of the college administration. Due to her relentless effort towards campaigning for the female students, one student introduced her to Hugo Munsterberg who changed her fortunes. Hugo Munsterberg had just come to Germany after three years of teaching in Harvard. He was impressed by the unique nature of Puffer and her hard work which made him to work with her regularly in his private laboratory (Howes, 2007). Hugo Munsterberg went further to adopt her as part of his family where he encouraged her to do research. Puffer begun to investigate beauty from a psychological perspective as this subject had the advantage of uniting the ancient philosophical field of aesthetics with the new science of psychology. Puffer’s hard work paid more in 1897 when the Association of Collegiate Alumnae awarded her a fellowship to pursue her doctoral dissertation on aesthetics which is a critical aspect of beauty. The same year her mentor Munsterberg decided to relocate to Harvard in which Puffer went with him and continued to work together while she was enrolled for Ph.D. in Radcliffe College, Harvards womens college. Despite being shortchanged in issue of certificate, she managed to convince the administration and was awarded a Radcliffe doctoral degree alongside other four women in 1902. She later worked at Radcliffe, Wellesley and Simmons College, and wrote The Psychology of Beauty, a book based on her doctoral research. Her career was disrupted after she got married and got herself caged in the responsibility to take care of her two children and the husband. She published two articles in 1922 which explored the aspects of marriage versus career balance. She had a small stint as director of the Institute for the Coordination of Womens Interests at Smith College, an institute created by a Rockefeller grant. She had to leave after some time due to family commitments but went ahead to write books on feminism and its relevance that can be observed to the contemporary society. She is known to have advanced the theory of beauty under the concept of aesthetic which covered various factors like pleasure in the senses; discriminatory. Ethel Puffer contributed significantly in the discipline of psychology through her campaign for feminism. The society by then was entangled in much sexism where women were eliminated space to express their feelings. Even Puffer herself had it difficult as she went through her education in college where she was even denied her certificate due to her feminine gender. Her marital interference in her career also motivated her to write about the aesthetics which was an aspect of beauty. Her theory of beauty was more of psychological as it significantly disregarded the physical outlook of an individual as far as beauty was concerned (Howes, 2007). In her research findings, she established that beauty was more in values than physical endowment. Women had suffered in the regime of patriarchy for a long time as they were viewed to satisfy the emotional and physical thirst of men. Their beauty had been anchored much on their physical wellbeing and the emotional burden they carried was overwhelming. According to her, aesthetics - all that can be aesthetically contemplated; inclusive of the ugly and the general principles of Beauty is highlighted as Excellence, Standard and Value. Through her theory of aesthetics commonly referred to as Psychology of Beauty, she championed for gender equity which summed up to feminism. She explored various aspects of real beauty in women to remove the notion that beauty was in the physical anatomy rather than the intrinsic values and principles that dictated individual’s conduct in the society. In her result findings, nature of beauty takes various forms in Auditory, motor, visual, and other physiological responses. She asserts that beauty is not perfection but, rather perfect moments. She emphasized on the significance of women given opportunity through flexible work options to balance their life as career women and mothers. Her personal experience through a conflict of motherhood and career pursuit hit a dead end and this is what compelled her to create awareness through her books. Her work is hailed as being effective in the contemporary work versus family balance among the womenfolk. In her theory of psychology of beauty, she puts it clearly that women can still make it in their career if given enough time to take up work on part time basis. She claimed that women were not meant to optimize their career as domestic workers. Howes’ Research had significant Strengths and Weaknesses in regard to the methodology used to carry out the investigation. Some of methodological weaknesses included large population which poses significant analytical errors , unclear definition of an aesthetic feeling of individuals which amounts to vague understanding, significant presence of subjective and implicit value judgment which is not good for better research findings and exposure to many types of beauty which does not make it easy to generalize. It is also notable that her methodology had some strong points which included an attempt at using empirical methods of psychology in defining concept of beauty (Seigfried, 1996). This is historically defined to be beauty as part of abstract philosophical theory. Her methodology explores the fact that beauty provides a sense of unity and totality. This constitutes self-completeness - creating an aesthetic experience for humanity. The theory on feminism advanced by Puffer is critical in promoting the equity towards women in the workplace and the society at large. In-depth analysis of the unprecedented suppression of women towards their effort to realize career goals is a topic of much debate. Puffer stood against the idea that women had their final destination in domestic chores. She instead claimed that with sound management practices and reformed socio-economic order; women can balance parenthood with work and succeeded in realizing their potential. It can be noted that several workplace policies that have adopted various human resource management policies that considers the multiple roles that women play in the society. In an effort to promote favorable family versus work among the workforce, most organization in response to the government rules makes it mandatory to offer maternal leave. This is after a specified time period at agreed amount of monthly wage and allowances. The continuity of a woman is significantly boosted through emerging debate on time off for breastfeeding mothers who are also at any level of management or subordinate staff. The concept of beauty has remained relevant in the contemporary workplace where employment no longer considers a woman’s look (Singer, 2003). The potential to deliver and show exemplary career mastery is significantly tied to the flexible workplace policies that may be supportive to the female employees. The corporate world has improved its policies in reducing the emotional conflict in the mind of the female workers so that they have space and time to accommodate their extra role in taking care of the child. Research findings by various organizations and individuals have established that if the women are not offered such an opportunity to balance, then there overall productivity will equally be compromised. Emotional instability of women is always attributed to overloaded responsibility as reflected in divided attempts to maximize productivity in workplace versus childcare at home. This problem is intensified by the skewed wage rate which favors men. It is therefore important that the organizations adopt flexible work option in which women are given time to tend to their children and work partially. As puffer noted, previous solutions aimed at resolving the challenge of intolerable choice which involved centering career on role as wife and mother. The methodologies used by various researchers towards this critical topic have both weaknesses and strengths. The findings are always subjective as they focus on women from the work perspective. It omits the housewife who misses out on any career path. There are also flaws in the findings as the research is biased against the womenfolk. It is also important to note that significant debate of feminism has received opposition from a section of women population themselves and this makes the findings which are based on generalization to be unreliable (Howes, 2007). The information gaps on the theory advanced by other psychologists as far as feminism is concerned is yet to be filled. This has called for further research to improve the existing findings and establish strong facts on the ideas of Ethel Puffer Howes who is speaking from firsthand experience on what position women occupy in the society. References Howes, E. P. (2007). The psychology of beauty. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger Pub. Seigfried, C. H. (1996). Pragmatism and feminism: Reweaving the social fabric. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Singer, S. L. (2003). Adventures abroad: North American women at German-speaking universities, 1868-1915. Westport, Conn: Praeger. Read More