Isabelle Kendig

Isabelle Kendig was a prominent clinical psychologist in the mid-20th century United States. She was best known as Head Psychologist at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. In that role she was part of a cohort of senior clinicians that helped guide the expansion of clinical psychology in the post-WWII era. She also qualified as a member of the second generation of women psychologists in the U.S.

Less well known than Kendig's clinical career are the two other careers that preceded her doctoral studies and PhD. She began as a eugenic field worker in 1912, investigating alleged hereditary defects in the Pratt family of Shutesbury Massachusetts. This was followed by living in Washington, D.C., working as a campaigner for women's rights, anti-militarism, and socialism.

Education Isabelle Kendig was educated at St. Xavier’s Academy in Chicago, a Catholic school. After high school, she attended Cook County Normal School, a teachers college known for its progressive philosophy and connections to Chicago’s poor and immigrant populations. Next, she became an elementary school teacher in the Chicago public schools. She then attended Oberlin College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa.

Career Kendig began as a eugenic field worker, trained at the Eugenics Record Office in Long Island. Field work in eugenics was a popular job for young people, particularly women, who wanted to improve society by investigating the connection between heredity and social problems. Skeptical of the assumptions of hard-line eugenicists, Kendig produced data that contradicted their basic beliefs. When she presented her research to Charles Davenport and other social scientists concerned with social defect, Kendig was shunned by Davenport, who, in turn, falsified her findings to fit his beliefs. and worked for the Children's Commission in New Hampshire for similar aims. She later resigned from the League of Preventive Work in 1916, so she could get a degree in law from the Cambridge Law School for Women,

She then worked for socialist, feminist, and anti-militarist organizations in Washington, D.C. In the National Women’s Party, Kendig was a field organizer and its Legislative and Organizational Secretary, for which she received a salary. She lobbied and helped organize local groups in the South and created equal rights publicity material for a national audience. She also created the NWP’s Councils for various professions and its Homemakers’ Council—a forum in which policies on marriage and family could be created. Kendig also served as the ACLU's Washington Representative, and organized a campaign to oppose a bill for the registration and deportation of aliens, testifying before the relevant Congressional committee, among other tasks.

Her final career was as a clinical psychologist. In 1933, she earned a degree in the field from Radcliffe College. She also taught at George Washington University Medical School and Catholic University. In the 1940s, Kendig published widely on assessment and psychopathology and completed a book on intellectual deterioration in schizophrenia that had been begun by William Alanson White, former superintendent at St. Elizabeths. The book was entitled Psychological studies in dementia praecox. After World War II, she helped lead the field of clinical psychology, locally and nationally, as it expanded its scientific and social influence. and children. A year before they married, Kendig and Gill began planning how they could each have a career, a home life, and children. This included three boys, including Benjamin Franklin Gill in November 1917, Jonathan Belding Gill in October 1919, Peter Lawrence Gill in February 1921, and Joan Kendig Gill in November 1925.

In a 1975 interview, Alice Paul noted that, at first, Kendig was called "Sally Gill", but changed her mind, insisting that fellow NWP members use the name "Isabel Kendig" instead. Paul also stated that while Kendig was a "well-wisher" for the organization, Kendig was drawn "into her own family life" after leaving NWP. "Isabelle V. Kendig Gill", and "Sally".