page_title: Helen Thompson Woolley
section_title: Relationship and Travels
hierarchical_section_title: Helen Thompson Woolley / Personal life / Relationship and Travels
caption_attribution_description: English: Black and white photograph of buildings of the University of Cincinnati.
context_page_description: Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley was an American psychologist, known for her contributions to the educational sector, groundbreaking research on sex differences and rigorous research methods. Woolley's interest in scientific inquiry was prompted by the work of her father, Paul Thompson, who was an inventor. Woolley's academic achievement and resultant scholarship allowed her to pursue studies in psychology at the University of Chicago.
  Woolley's studies at the University of Chicago marked the beginning of her career in experimental and applied psychology. Her controversial dissertation, titled The Psychological Norms in Men and Women, attracted the interest as well as scrutiny of the scientific world as it was the first major piece of psychological research explicitly examining the similarities and differences of the mental traits of women and men.
  Woolley's husband, Paul Woolley, was a determining force in the course of her career, as the constant relocations required by his profession as a physician limited hers academic opportunities.
context_section_description: Woolley met her husband, Paul Gerhardt Woolley in university when she was a senior and Paul was finishing medical studies at Chicago. Soon after meeting, they were engaged and remained engaged for eight years during which time both completed their professional training. After completing their undergraduate studies, Woolley was offered a graduate fellowship and remained in Chicago while Paul left for residency at Johns Hopkins University. 
  After working in Massachusetts for four years, Woolley left her job and moved to Japan where Paul was working as an epidemiologist. She and Paul were married in Yokohama. Soon thereafter, they moved to the Philippines where Paul directed a laboratory. In the Philippines, Woolley began working for the Bureau of Education, performing research on childhood education and the best years for learning. While Woolley took on this project, Paul took a job in Siam (now called Thailand) doing public health work and manufacturing vaccines for smallpox and anthrax. She joined Paul once her project was done.
  When Woolley became pregnant, Paul sent her home out of concern for her and the baby’s health. At six months pregnant, Woolley took a boat to the West Coast, then taking a train back to her parents’ home, arriving barely six weeks before her first daughter, Eleanor Faxon Woolley, was born (August 26, 1907). Eleanor's birth sparked Woolley's interest in child and developmental psychology. 
  After spending a year in Omaha, Nebraska the family moved to Cincinnati. Paul began teaching at the medical school, while Woolley was a philosophy lecturer at the University of Cincinnati. However, during their years in Cincinnati, Woolley and Paul drifted apart. Paul eventually took on a job in Detroit running a medical testing laboratory, and Woolley left Cincinnati in 1921 to follow Paul to Detroit. 
  In 1924, Paul contracted tuberculosis from the diagnostic laboratory and left for a sanatorium in Pasadena, California. Paul Woolley filed for a divorce from Woolley in 1927 with the plans of marrying Millie Thompson (no relation) and eventually died in 1932. Woolley died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 72 in Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve of 1947.
caption: University of Cincinnati in 1918
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