Ethel Puffer Howes

Ethel Dench Puffer Howes (10 October 1872 – 1950) was an American psychologist, suffragist, and college professor. She taught at Wellesley College, Smith College, and Simmons College. She was Executive Secretary of the National College Equal Suffrage League, and founder of the Institute for the Coordination of Women's Interests at Smith College.

Early life and education

Ethel Dench Puffer was born to George and Ella Puffer in Framingham, Massachusetts on October 10, 1872, the eldest child in a family of four daughters. Both her mother and her aunt had gone to college, and Puffer and her sisters would also attend college. All four Puffer sisters graduated from Smith College, and two went on to earn doctoral degrees. Puffer completed her undergraduate degree at Smith College in 1891 at age 19, after which she taught high school in Keene, New Hampshire, where she met her future husband, who was a student at that time.

Psychology

After teaching high school for a year in Keene, Ethel Puffer returned to Smith College as a mathematics instructor, but soon found herself becoming increasingly interested in psychology. In 1895, she traveled to Germany to pursue education in the newly formed field, and was met instantaneously with the logistical obstacles set in place to keep women from enrolling in graduate courses. Letters to her mother reveal the persistence Puffer employed to ensure her place at the University of Berlin, which included pursuing meetings with professors, ministers and rectors at their homes on the weekend to request permission to attend classes.