Notes

the Experimentalists were a group of male psychologists initially organized by Edward Titchener in 1904. It was a small exclusive group, as one was only gained allowance to enter on an “invitation only” basis. Admittance into the group included most leading psychologists however, controversy arose due to the fact that women were excluded. This was done so that men would be allowed to freely express and discuss their ideas. Extremely angered by this, Christine Ladd-Franklin, fought back, and was eventually allowed to attend one of the meetings. Despite the major strides made in allowing Franklin to attend the meeting, the men did believe her work to be of much merit.
Titchener established the Society of Experimental Psychologists, also known as the Experimentalists, which explicitly banned women from membership. This was a small, invitation-only group of researchers who met once a year to discuss work in progress, engaged in experimental demonstrations and had free wheeling discussions that served to socialize younger researchers in the field (Pg. 197). Although women were not allowed to join/get invited to this, Christine Ladd-Franklin challenged Titchener’s membership policy. She did get invited to one meeting and confronted him but it did not change his general policy. His policy did not change until he passed away 2 years later. However, there wasn’t a drastic change since only 4 women were elected to membership by the 1970s (Pg. 199).