Naomi Weisstein (1939-2015)

This article memorializes Naomi Weisstein, who passed away on March 26, 2015 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. In Chicago, Illinois, Weisstein began what would become a defining feature of her career and legacy-combining feminist political activism with both her academic and personal life pursuits. By the time she began her first faculty position at Loyola University in Chicago in 1966, Weisstein was an outspoken feminist. In 1968, she published her now classic article "Kirche, Kuche, Kinder as Scientific Law: Psychology Constructs the Female" (PCF; New England Free Press), wherein she criticized the field of psychology for failing to understand women because of its overreliance on essentialism and biologically based theories, while ignoring the importance of social context. Her critique laid the groundwork for others to explore the social construction of gender, and for second-wave feminism to take hold within the discipline of psychology. Despite all of her varied contributions, it is PCF that helped to define Weisstein's legacy in psychology. The article has been cited as a defining moment in second-wave feminism, and several psychologists have remembered the piece as a catalyst for their feminist awakening.