Early Life and Influences:

         There isn’t much information on Nancy Henley’s family life, and younger years, except for the fact that she was born in 1934. After high school Nancy had planned to attend Wilson Teachers College, having received a scholarship to attend the school. Three years into her education however she dropped out school since she had married and was in the process of raising her children. After some time at home, she decided she wanted to finish her degree. Her husband supported her decision since it could provide her with a job if anything had ever happened to him. When she applied to continue school at Johns Hopkins, at the time Coy College, she realized how many psychology credits she had from her previous school. She enjoyed her psychology classes, and the discussions she had with her professors, so she decided to take psychology at Johns Hopkins, out of an even amount of both interest, and convenience. She remained at Johns Hopkins until 1968 when she received her PhD, also attaining a bachelors, and a masters degree at the school along the way.

        

One of the earliest events that propelled her into the feminist psychology word was the application process to the different graduate programs. Many of them did not want women candidates and they kept the numbers of female psychology graduate students down to minimal numbers. Her acceptance she believes was partially due to the fact that she had already had kids and a family so the school didn’t have to be concerned with her dropping out to pursue either of those things.

Career:

         To continue the statement from above, the American Psychological Association met in 1969 to discuss some of the sexist practices that were going on in the psychological community, such as advertisements for jobs that stated “men only” need apply for the job, sexual harassment towards women at the conventions and much more. It was a very serious argument to decide the direction and actions to take to try and rectify the ongoing problems. As a result, women members of the APA started an organization called the Association for Women in Psychology. This group in 1970 brought their ongoing problems to the table in a debate with the first African American leader of the APA Kenneth B. Clark. Their demands initially were 1 million dollars in reparations, but they were not granted that demand. Instead the APA implemented a committee to search for the problems that existed within the organization. Helen Astin headed the committee and took two years in order to find and create ways to rectify the problems. They implemented a system for women to be able to file complaints if sexually harassed in psychotherapy, as well as ways to stop unfair hiring of only male candidates for psychology jobs. (Rutherford 2010)

         Nancy Henley was also a well-known cognitive psychologist. She wrote books such as Body Politics in which she discusses how nonverbal cues between men and women may contain sexist notions between them. Her work helped to illuminate much misconduct in the workplace and everyday interactions between men and women. Nancy is a big influence over the process of equality between men and women.

Relation to the Course:

        

Nancy’s work intertwines with all of the subjects we have discussed in the course. She created an environment in the psychological community in which the issues of race and gender could be discussed. She also was influential in making an environment in the psychological community in which men and women are equally heard or on the right path to becoming equals.

Sources:

1)http://www.bruinwalk.com/site_media/media/professors/mugs/henley.nancy_gif_190x190_crop_upscale_q85.jpg

2)http://www.feministvoices.com/nancy-henley/

3)http://books.google.com/books?id=UA5sI7qUzhMC&pg=PT353&lpg=PT353&dq=nancy+henley+psychology&source=bl&ots=P4K9CIYHj-&sig=lqWzhefguEnnZpYsuICROH39GzE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=U_8jUaPcJKmN0QGdvIGIDw&ved=0CF4Q6AEwCA