Psychology’s Feminist Voices (PFV) is a research team and project directed by Alexandra Rutherford. Our home base is York University in Toronto, Canada, but team members and collaborators can be found across three continents. We use critical historical, feminist, constructionist, and intersectional approaches to analyze psychology’s engagement with gender issues.

One of our ongoing activities is an oral history project, started in 2004, to collect, preserve, and share the narratives of diverse feminist psychologists from all over the world. Many of the psychologists featured in the Feminist Presence section of this site have contributed interviews. You can find their interviews at their Profile pages and in the Oral History section of this site. In addition to research publications and presentations, the PFV team has also produced the documentary "The Changing Face of Feminist Psychology," a series of short teaching videos called “Feminist Psychologists Talk About...,” and "Gender Matters," a video series on using gender-based analysis in psychology. These can be found in the Projects section of this site.

PFV is recognized by the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs and its founder is an active member of the Critical Psychology Network-Canada. The first version of this site was launched in August of 2010 and has been officially endorsed by the Society for the Psychology of Women, Society for the History of Psychology, the Section on Women and Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Association for Women in Psychology.

Members

Project Director / Founder

Alexandra Rutherford

Alexandra Rutherford is a professor in the Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Studies of Psychology graduate program at York University, and is also affiliated with the Gender, Feminist, and Women's Studies graduate program. She is a founding member of the Critical Psychology Network-Canada.

Rutherford is a past-president of The Society for General Psychology (APA Div 1) and the Society for the History of Psychology. She is a fellow of both, as well as the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Society for the Psychology of Women and the Canadian Psychological Association. She was the 2023 recipient of the Carolyn Wood Sherif Award, the highest award granted by the Society for the Psychology of Women (APA Div 35) for "sustained and substantial contributions to the of psychology of women as a scholar, teacher, mentor, and leader." Her contributions have also been recognized with the 2022 Career Achievement Award from the Society for the History of Psychology, the 2016 Florence Denmark Distinguished Mentoring Award from the Association for Women in Psychology and the 2011 Award of Distinction from the Section on Women and Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association for her contributions to feminist psychology. Her work has been highlighted in The Atlantic, Toronto Star, Washington Post, and Smithsonian Magazine and she has served as a guest columnist for the Behavioral Scientist.

Rutherford was the editor of the Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences from 2020-2023, and Associate Editor for the American Psychologist from 2019-2023. She is also an Associate Editor for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of the History of Psychology and the Psychology Advisory Editor for American National Biography. She is the lead editor of the Handbook of International Feminisms: Perspectives on Psychology, Women, Culture, and Rights (2011; New York: Springer) which features chapters on the development of feminist psychologies in diverse geopolitical contexts and was the winner of the 2012 Distinguished Publication Award from the Association for Women in Psychology.

Sponsors

Psychology’s Feminist Voices has received funding from the following sources:

Major Funding:

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Secondary Funding:

Society for the Psychology of Women of the American Psychological Association (APA)

Funded by the City of Vienna - Culture Program

Contact Us

Inquiries about the site should be directed to Alexandra Rutherford at alexr@yorku.ca