Background
Kathryn McHale was born on July 22, 1889 in Logansport, Indiana. She was the daughter of Martin McHale and Margaret Farrell.
(Columbia University Contributions To Education, Teachers ...)
Columbia University Contributions To Education, Teachers College Series No. 221.
https://www.amazon.com/Comparative-Psychology-Hygiene-Overweight-Child/dp/0404552218?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0404552218
(Uncommon pamplet which reproduces the address given by th...)
Uncommon pamplet which reproduces the address given by the General Director of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to the Graduation Classes of 44 women of International Business Machines (IBM), IBM Systems Service and Customer Engineering, June 1943. A strong World War II homefront speech in which she states, "Your new post and your life as a citizen from here on require necessay khaki and other equipment of war; you cannot carry your knapsack lightly." Interesting document relating to women in war work, a class of women who did graduate work. Hale was introduced by Thomas J. Watson, President of IBM.
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Horizon-Kathryn-McHale/dp/B004BBLKF8?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B004BBLKF8
Kathryn McHale was born on July 22, 1889 in Logansport, Indiana. She was the daughter of Martin McHale and Margaret Farrell.
After attending public schools in Logansport, she taught there from 1910 to 1917. She then entered Columbia University, where she was awarded the B. S. in 1919, the M. A. in 1920, and the Ph. D. 1926.
After receiving the M. A. , McHale became an instructor in education at Goucher College, Baltimore, Md. She was subsequently assistant professor (1922 - 1926), associate professor (1926 - 1927), and full professor (1927 - 1935). During the summer, she taught at Columbia (1918 - 1926), the University of Minnesota (1928), and Carleton College (1921 - 1931). After 1935, she continued on the faculty of Goucher as a nonresident professor. From 1929 to 1950, McHale served as the general director of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). During her tenure the membership of the organization grew from 31, 674 to 115, 402. As it increased in size, its program of adult education grew to include diverse social and economic problems and the arts, and it developed support for higher standards in education. Its work on behalf of the status of women also was expanded. As director of the AAUW, McHale worked to increase the number of fellowships for graduate study awarded to women.
According to Delos W. Lovelace of the New York Sun, McHale was "a moving spirit" at the Women's Conference on Post-War Planning in 1944. Later, she served on the executive committee of the U. S. National Commission for UNESCO. In 1950, President Harry S. Truman appointed her to the Subversive Activities Control Board, on which she served until 1956. She regarded this appointment as an opportunity "to give close thought and a fair approach to a fundamental problem. " The only woman on the board, she sat with the chairman as a subcommittee of two at hearings to determine whether the Communist party in the United States was under foreign domination and control. She also conducted lengthy hearings on the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, members of which had served with the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War. Her report condemned the group for its left-wing activities. McHale died in Washington, D. C.
(Uncommon pamplet which reproduces the address given by th...)
(Columbia University Contributions To Education, Teachers ...)
While at Goucher, McHale developed the McHale Vocational Interest Test for College Women. Using her studies of vocational guidance and testing, and encouraged by her colleague Agnes L. Rogers, she adapted portions of the Thorndike Intelligence Tests to form an instrument designed particularly for women. The purpose of the test, she wrote, was to "formulate a working idea to guide an objective study of vocational interests . .. the idea being, that if one made an information test based on interests, perhaps one would arrive at something more tangible by way of a guidance tool. " In 1922 she administered the first form of her test to 133 Goucher College juniors; by 1933 a revised form was being used in twenty colleges. It was also during her tenure at Goucher that McHale published her doctoral dissertation, Comparative Psychology and Hygiene of the Overweight Child (1926). After extensive testing of 312 children, she concluded that "over-weight children are not very different from other children" and that "it is difficult if not impossible to explain by the environmental hypothesis the relatively superior educational achievement of the over-weight group. "
Her interest in higher education led to a comprehensive study of 315 liberal arts colleges, Current Changes and Experiments in Liberal Arts Education (1932), which was the thirty-first yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. This major AAUW study, which showed the important trends in the care and direction of students, curriculum and instruction, organization and administration, set forth 128 specific changes and experiments aimed at improving liberal arts education. McHale noted that "the tendency of the college to become a progressive agency in society . .. has brought it into conflict with other social institutions and introduced problems that will require unusual wisdom and skill in their solution. " In dealing with these problems, McHale wrote or edited three books, including Housing College Students (1934); numerous pamphlets; and articles in journals. Her more than forty publications dealt with such varied subjects as child development, educational opportunities for women, and studies in higher education. Deeply concerned about adult education, she stated, "Every woman is forced by events to feel a greater responsibility for taking part in community, national, and international affairs, and for understanding economic and social forces. " McHale also encouraged women to become involved in the international aspects of education, including the Information and Research Bureau of International Education of the AAUW. She urged the formation of the United Nations as early as 1943, and was instrumental in securing the appointment of women to the San Francisco Conference in 1945.
McHale was never married.