title: Gender, ethnicity, and career trajectories: a comment on Woodward (2010).
abstract: Woodward (2010) argued that Maria Rickers-Ovsiankina, Eugenia Hanfmann, and Tamara Dembo constituted a group of Jewish emigré psychologists who received substantial help in America from a "Jewish network" of patronage. This comment focuses on the historiographic problems and pitfalls of essentialized ethnic identification. There was no evidence that Maria Rickers-Ovsiankina was a Jew or that Eugenia Hanffman, raised Russian Orthodox, identified herself as a Jew, in contrast to Tamara Dembo, who did so. We argue that these women were part of an active network of Gestaltists, topologists, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues leaders, and that any help that they received may be explained by the shared theoretical and disciplinary outlook of these groups as opposed to a "Jewish network."
authors: Department of Psychology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada. fran_cherry@carleton.ca
authors: Frances
authors: F
authors: Cherry
authors: Rhoda
authors: R
authors: Unger
authors: Andrew S
authors: AS
authors: Winston
mesh_terms: D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D007599:Judaism / Q000266:history*; D011584:Psychology / Q000266:history*