A Woman’s Quest for Science: Portrait of Anthropologist Elsie Clews Parsons

Before Margaret Mead, even before Ruth Benedict, it was Elsie Clews Parsons who paved the way as the first woman president of the American Anthropological Association. Born into a prominent New York family in 1874, Parsons showed early determination to be free of social constraints. Everything she did until her death in 1941 stemmed from her concern for the ways in which expression of personality is affected by social conventions. Her proposal of trial marriage in 1906 and even her pacifism in World War I (in association with Randolph Bourne) derived from that concern.Parson’s personality was fascinating in its tensions and complexity. She was a feminist who admitted to prejudice against her own sex and seldom enjoyed the companionship of other women. She was devoted to her politically prominent husband from whom she never concealed her relationships with other men. However, her husband’s companionship with another woman tormented her. Her publications ranged from iconoclastic propaganda to technical science. She loved rugged adventure in the wild, yet thrived on scholarly work. Though her convictions were passionately held, her voice was never raised.