Lillien Jane Martin

It can be a challenge to discuss the influence of a woman in psychology because, although there have been several women throughout the history of psychology, their contributions have often been ignored or overridden by men. Lillien Martin is one woman who was determined to work in psychology doing what she wanted. Lillien, as a pioneer woman in psychology, faced obstacles including age, as well as gender discrimination. Her determination eventually rewarded her with an honorary Ph.D. from a school that originally refused her a degree because of her sex. Lillien's accomplishments and enthusiastic eagerness to share knowledge have changed the way applied psychology is viewed in areas of gerontology and mental hygiene for children.

Lillien Jane Martin was born on July7, 1851, in Olean, New York. Her father deserted the family when she was very young and her mother took over a proper religious and secular education.  She attended Olean Academy at the age of four and at sixteen her mother took a position as matron in a college in Racine, Wisconsin, and Lillien began teaching at a nearby girl’s school to earn money for her college education.

After graduation from Vassar she taught chemistry and physics at Indianapolis High School. She remained there for nine years, until she was offered a position of vice principal and head of the Science Department at Girls’ High School of San Francisco.  After five years in San Francisco, at the age of forty-three, she suddenly decided to become a psychologist.

Lillien studied at the University of Gootingen in German receiving her Ph.D. in 1898 followed by a year of study in a Swiss psychiatric hospital specializing in hypnotism. In 1899 the president of Stanford University cabled her abroad and offered her an assistant professorship in psychology.  She was promoted to full professor in 1911 and in 1915 she became Stanford’s first woman department head. 

She was forced to retire at sixty-five but retirement did not agree with her.  She moved again to San Francisco where she opened a private practice where she encountered an imbalanced grandmother, which by chance thrust her into the field of gerontology. She opened the first old-age counseling center and devoted the rest of her life to researching the rehabilitation of old people who had become a public liability.

Lillien never slowed down.  She travelled to Russia alone at seventy-eight, accompanied a friend on a cross-country auto trip at eighty-one, spent six months trekking through South America at eighty-seven, and learned to drive at ninety. She earned numerous honorary degrees and awards recognizing her contributions to the field of psychology and gerontology.   She was most amused at being included in the book American Men of Science, with a star beside her name denoting distinction.