Women Psychologists

Vote for Your Favourite Women Psychologists

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 1 
Anna Freud
(British Psychoanalyst and Founder of Psychoanalytic Child Psychology)
Anna Freud
11
Birthdate: December 3, 1895
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: October 9, 1982

Anna Freud was a British psychoanalyst. The daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna followed in the footsteps of her father and made important contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. Alongside Melanie Klein and Hermine Hug-Hellmuth, Anna Freud is counted among the founders of psychoanalytic child psychology. Her work and contributions were featured in a documentary titled The Century of the Self.

 2 
Karen Horney
(German Psychoanalyst Best Known for Founding Feminist Psychology in Response to Freud’s Theory of Penis Envy)
Karen Horney
11
Birthdate: September 16, 1885
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Blankenese, Hamburg, Germany
Died: December 4, 1952

Remembered for her pioneering work on feminist psychology, Karen Horney studied medicine at a time when women weren’t allowed in universities. Going against Sigmund Freud’s concept of penis envy, she suggested the idea of womb envy. She believed psychological differences weren’t rooted in gender but rather depended on the socio-cultural influences.

 3 
Veronica Porché Ali
(Muhammad Ali’s Ex-Wife, Psychologist)
Veronica Porché Ali
8
Birthdate: December 16, 1955
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States
 4 
Gwynne Gilford
6
Birthdate: July 27, 1946
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States
 5 
France Nuyen
(Actress)
France Nuyen
4
Birthdate: July 31, 1939
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Marseille, France
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
 6 
Laura Schlessinger
(Psychologist, Radio personality)
Laura Schlessinger
4
Birthdate: January 16, 1947
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
 7 
Mary Ainsworth
(American-Canadian Developmental Psychologist Known for Her Work in the Development of the Attachment Theory)
Mary Ainsworth
5
Birthdate: December 1, 1913
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Glendale, Ohio, United States
Died: March 21, 1999

American-Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth is best remembered for her contributions in developing the attachment theory. She devised the Strange situation procedure during the 1970s to observe early emotional connect and relationship between a caregiver and child. She was ranked as the 97th most cited psychologist of the 20th century in a 2002 survey of Review of General Psychology.

 8 
Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele
(Educator)
Gabriela Rodríguez de Bukele
3
Birthdate: March 31, 1985
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: San Salvador, El Salvador
 9 
Christine Blasey Ford
(Professor)
Christine Blasey Ford
12
Birthdate: November 28, 1966
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: United States
Palo Alto University professor and Stanford researcher Christine Blasey Ford made headlines when, in 2018, she accused U.S. Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her back in 1982. Apart from teaching psychology, she has also been a biostatistician. She was also named to Time 100 in 2019.
 10 
Elizabeth Loftus
(Psychologist, Statistician, University teacher)
Elizabeth Loftus
3
Birthdate: October 16, 1944
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Los Angeles
 11 
Carol S. Dweck
(Best Known for Her Work on The 'Mindset' of Psychological Traits)
Carol S. Dweck
4
Birthdate: October 17, 1976
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States

Renowned psychologist Carol S. Dweck has taught at both Columbia and Harvard and is now a professor at Stanford. She is best known for her research on fixed mindset and growth mindset and has also penned popular books such as Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality and Development.

 12 
Melanie Klein
(Austrian-British Author and Psychoanalyst)
Melanie Klein
5
Birthdate: March 30, 1882
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: September 22, 1960

Melanie Klein was an Austrian-British author and psychoanalyst. A key figure in the development of object relations theory, she is best known for her work in child analysis. She began her studies by observing her own children’s behavior while they were growing up. As a woman in a field dominated by men, she was also a feminist icon. 

 13 
Elizabeth Holloway Marston
(Psychologist)
Elizabeth Holloway Marston
3
Birthdate: February 20, 1893
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Isle of Man
Died: March 27, 1993
 14 
Sabina Spielrein
(Psychiatrist)
Sabina Spielrein
5
Birthdate: October 25, 1885
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Rostov-on-Don, Russian Empire
Died: August 11, 1942

Sabina Spielrein was a Russian physician who also worked as a psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, and teacher during an illustrious professional career that spanned 30 years. A pioneer of psychoanalysis, Spielrein was the first person to bring in and popularize the concept of the death instinct. Sabina Spielrein was also one of the earliest psychoanalysts to study schizophrenia in detail. 

 15 
Pamela Stephenson
(New Zealander Actress)
Pamela Stephenson
9
Birthdate: December 4, 1949
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Auckland, New Zealand

Pamela Stephenson is a New Zealand-born writer, psychologist, and performer. Stephenson is best known as a comedienne who achieved immense popularity during the 1980s when she appeared in comedy films and shows like History of the World, Part I and Not the Nine O'Clock News. As a writer, Pamela Stephenson has been contributing to publications like Psychologies and The Guardian.  

 16 
Mary Whiton Calkins
(Psychologist, University teacher)
Mary Whiton Calkins
2
Birthdate: March 30, 1863
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Hartford
Died: February 26, 1930
 17 
Lou Andreas-Salomé
(Russian Novelist, Essayist and Psychoanalyst)
Lou Andreas-Salomé
5
Birthdate: February 12, 1861
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: February 5, 1937

Russian-born German author Lou Andreas-Salomé apparently rejected renowned philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s marriage proposal and then married a professor instead. A skilled psychoanalyst, she was also close to Rainer Maria Rilke and Sigmund Freud. She was one of the first to offer a psychoanalytic perspective to female sexuality.

 18 
Amy Cuddy
(Psychologist)
Amy Cuddy
3
Birthdate: June 23, 1972
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Robesonia, Pennsylvania, USA
 19 
Lillian Moller Gilbreth
3
Birthdate: May 24, 1878
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Oakland, California, United States
Died: January 2, 1972
 20 
Sara Netanyahu
(Psychologist)
Sara Netanyahu
7
Birthdate: November 5, 1958
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Kiryat Tiv'on

Sara Netanyahu is an Israeli educational and career psychologist. She is married to former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She is the daughter of a Polish-born Israeli Jewish educator. She has worked as a psychotechnical evaluator and an educational psychologist. She has received much negative media attention for the mistreatment of her staff. 

 21 
Emma Jung
(Swiss Jungian Analyst and Author)
Emma Jung
3
Birthdate: March 30, 1882
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Died: November 27, 1955

Better known as Carl Jung’s wife, Emma Jung was the daughter of one of the most affluent businessmen in Switzerland. Though she initially wished to study natural sciences, being a woman in her time, she couldn’t. Later a co-owner of a luxury watch company, she helped her husband financially in his career.

 22 
Cindy O Callaghan
(Irish-Born British Actor and Child Psychologist)
Cindy O Callaghan
3
Birthdate: October 18, 1956
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Republic of Ireland Ireland
 23 
Tara Brach
(Psychologist)
Tara Brach
3
Birthdate: May 17, 1953
Sun Sign: Taurus
 24 
Selma Ergeç
(Actress)
Selma Ergeç
4
Birthdate: November 1, 1978
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Hamm, Germany
Height: 5'10" (178 cm)
 25 
Carol Gilligan
(Psychologist, Philosopher, Non-fiction writer, Sociologist, Feminist)
Carol Gilligan
3
Birthdate: November 28, 1936
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: New York City

Carol Gilligan is an American psychologist, ethicist, and feminist. She is renowned for her work on ethical relationships and ethical community. She also serves as a professor of Applied Psychology and Humanities at New York University. Considered the chief architect of the ethics of care, Gilligan was named in the 25 most influential people list by Time magazine in 1996.

 26 
Marsha M. Linehan
(American Psychologist and Author)
Marsha M. Linehan
3
Birthdate: May 5, 1943
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
 27 
Toni Wolff
(Psychologist)
Toni Wolff
2
Birthdate: September 18, 1888
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Zürich
Died: March 21, 1953

Denied formal education for being a woman, Toni Wolff later became one of psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s closest collaborators. She entered Jung’s life as a patient of depression after her father’s death. She later headed the Psychologischer Club Zürich as its president and is often described as an intellectual rival of Jung’s wife.

 28 
Alice Miller
(Psychologist)
Alice Miller
3
Birthdate: January 12, 1923
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland
Died: April 14, 2010

Apart from being a renowned psychologist, Alice Miller became an international sensation with her debut book, The Drama of the Gifted Child, a bestseller. A Holocaust survivor, who had lost her father in a Jewish ghetto, she analyzed child abuse, including education, violence, and parental abuse.

 29 
James Tiptree Jr.
(Author)
James Tiptree Jr.
2
Birthdate: August 24, 1915
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, U.S
Died: May 19, 1987
 30 
Andrea De Cruz
(Actress)
Andrea De Cruz
4
Birthdate: June 24, 1974
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Singapore
Height: 5'5" (165 cm)
 31 
Barbara De Angelis
(Psychologist, Writer)
Barbara De Angelis
2
Birthdate: March 4, 1951
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: United States
 32 
Anne Treisman
(Psychologist, University teacher)
Anne Treisman
2
Birthdate: February 27, 1935
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Wakefield
 33 
Alison Gopnik
(Psychologist, Author, University teacher, Writer)
Alison Gopnik
2
Birthdate: June 16, 1955
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Philadelphia
 34 
Julia Shaw
(Psychologist)
Julia Shaw
4
Birthdate: January 20, 1987
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Cologne, Germany
 35 
Eva Justin
(German Anthropologist Who Specialised in Scientific Racism)
Eva Justin
4
Birthdate: August 23, 1909
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: September 11, 1966

Eva Justin was a German anthropologist who specialised in scientific racism. Justin, who was active during the Nazi era, contributed to the crimes of the Nazis against the Roma and Sinti peoples. Eva Justin was tasked with studying children, who were then sent to concentration camps. At least 35 children studied by Eva Justin were killed in the gas chamber.

 36 
Marie-Louise von Franz
(Swiss Jungian Psychologist and Scholar)
Marie-Louise von Franz
2
Birthdate: January 4, 1915
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Munich, Germany
Died: February 17, 1998

Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz met Carl Jung when she was 18 and was at once engaged in intellectual exchange. She later penned books such as Number and Time, which analyze Jung’s research on the unus mundus and archetypes, which he, in his later years, had handed over to von Franz.

 37 
Brenda Milner
(Neuroscientist, Psychologist, University teacher)
Brenda Milner
2
Birthdate: July 15, 1918
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Manchester

Considered a pioneer in her field, centenarian neuropsychologist Brenda Milner is known for her immense contribution to clinical neuropsychology. Especially known for her work on memory and cognition, she has contributed immensely to the study of temporal lobe. Her papers on the frontal lobes in problem-solving and the lateralization of hemispheric function in language are also highly regarded by scholars.

 38 
Nadia Chaudhri
(Pakistani-Canadian Psychologist and Professor of Psychology)
Nadia Chaudhri
0
Birthdate: January 25, 1978
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Karachi, Pakistan
Died: October 5, 2021
 39 
May-Britt Moser
(Norwegian Psychologist, Neuroscientist and 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine)
May-Britt Moser
2
Birthdate: January 4, 1963
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Fosnavåg, Norway

May-Britt Moser is a Norwegian neuroscientist and psychologist. She also serves as a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She is best known for winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2014 for her work pertaining to the grid cells in the brain's entorhinal cortex. She shared the award with her then-husband, Edvard Moser.

 40 
Margaret Floy Washburn
(American Psychologist)
Margaret Floy Washburn
4
Birthdate: July 25, 1871
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: New York, United States
Died: October 29, 1939
 41 
Bloeme Evers-Emden
(Teacher, Child psychologist)
Bloeme Evers-Emden
1
Birthdate: July 26, 1926
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Died: July 18, 2016

A Holocaust survivor, Bloeme Evers-Emden was deported to Auschwitz on the same train as Anne Frank’s family. She grew up to be a prominent child psychologist and lecturer and devoted herself to the research related to the “hidden children" of World War II. Her books include Borrowed Children.

 42 
Bluma Zeigarnik
(Lithuanian-Soviet Psychologist and Psychiatrist)
Bluma Zeigarnik
1
Birthdate: November 9, 1901
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Prienai, Lithuania
Died: February 24, 1988

Born to a Jewish family in southern Lithuania that was well-respected among the community, Bluma Zeigarnik grew up to be a renowned psychologist. She is best remembered for discovering what is known as the Zeigarnik effect, or the phenomenon of remembering incomplete tasks better than complete ones.

 43 
Esther Vilar
(Writer)
Esther Vilar
1
Birthdate: September 16, 1935
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Born to German-Jewish immigrants in Argentina, Esther Vilar studied medicine before she moved to Germany to study psychology and sociology. After taking up scores of odd jobs, she soared to international fame with her bestselling book The Manipulated Man, which argues that women aren’t oppressed but control men in relationships.

 44 
Uta Frith
(Psychologist)
Uta Frith
1
Birthdate: May 25, 1941
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Rockenhausen, Germany
 45 
Nancy Chodorow
(Psychologist, Writer, Sociologist)
Nancy Chodorow
1
Birthdate: January 20, 1944
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York City
 46 
Mary Cover Jones
(psychologist)
Mary Cover Jones
1
Birthdate: September 1, 1896
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Johnstown
Died: July 22, 1987
 47 
Anna Jean Ayres
(Occupational Therapist)
Anna Jean Ayres
1
Birthdate: January 18, 1920
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Visalia, California, United States
Died: December 16, 1988
 48 
Lisbeth Palme
(Psychologist)
Lisbeth Palme
1
Birthdate: March 14, 1931
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
Died: October 18, 2018

Wife of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, Lisbeth Palme was also a children's psychologist in her own right, serving as the chairwoman of the Swedish UNICEF committee for about twelve long years and as its international chairwoman for one term. A witness to her husband’s assassination, she later identified the murderer, but experts believe he identified the wrong man.

 49 
Sandra Bem
(Psychologist)
Sandra Bem
1
Birthdate: June 22, 1944
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Pittsburgh
Died: May 20, 2014
 50 
Joan Erikson
(American psychologist)
Joan Erikson
1
Birthdate: June 27, 1903
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Gananoque, Canada
Died: August 3, 1997

Apart from being an educator and an author, Joan Erikson was also a dance ethnographer and believed that art therapy could heal a lot of psychological ailments. She also established a theater and art program to help patients develop psychologically. She also spoke about the importance of “play” in adult life.