- Dorothy Riddle
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Dorothy I. Riddle.
Dorothy Riddle is an American-Canadian psychologist, feminist and economic development specialist. She is known as the author of the Riddle homophobia scale and renowned for her work in women's studies, homophobia, services and metaphysics.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Dorothy Irene Riddle was born on January 12, 1944 in Chicago, United States.[1] In 1946, when Riddle was 2 years old, the family moved to Beijing, China where her parents, who were Presbyterian missionaries, taught English.
With the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, foreigners were forced to leave the country and the family moved to India as refugees.[1] The early experience of poverty and social issues in China and India came to influence much of Riddle's studies and professional career in later years.[2]
Education
Riddle started school in 1950 at Woodstock School, a boarding school in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, where her grandfather, Allen Parker, had been principal.[1] She graduated it as the valedictorian of her class in 1960 and moved back to United States to attend college.
Riddle studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Colorado and graduated with B.A., summa cum laude.[1] She received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, with a minor in statistics and research methodology, from Duke University in 1968[3] and an M.B.A. specializing in service industries from the University of Arizona in 1981.[2]
Professional life
Dorothy Riddle's professional career has concentrated on the issues of feminism and women's studies, homosexuality and homophobia, and on services and economic development, focusing on the initiatives that empower disadvantaged groups and economies.[1] She has also written extensively on metaphysics and spirituality.
Women's studies
After receiving her doctorate in 1968, Riddle had difficulty finding work in academia, as many universities at the time were not used to hiring women professors. Witnessing the injustice, Riddle became passionate about women's issues. She became a founding member of the Association for Women in Psychology, and introduced feminist analysis in the seminar 'Psychology of Social Issues' at the College of William and Mary where she was hired as an Assistant Professor of Psychology.[4] She traveled frequently to Washington, DC to lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment against discrimination based on person's sex or gender, and pressured the American Psychological Association to address women's issues fully[4] by acting as the spokesperson of the Association of Women in Psychology.[5]
In the early 1970s, Riddle spoke and wrote on women's health, sexuality and sex roles and taught courses on these topics. In 1971, she launched the first BA-granting women's studies program at Richmond College (now the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY)) and was appointed to the first CUNY affirmative action committee.[4]
She co-founded a feminist counseling service (Alternatives for Women) in 1973 in Tucson, Arizona[4] where she conceptualized the empowerment model used in feminist therapy, and introduced the use of political analysis in psychotherapy.[6]
In the 1990s, Riddle started to advocate for women business owners and helped to organize the first trade missions between Canada and the U.S. for women business owners.[4] She is currently a Research Associate with the University of British Columbia Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies where she continues to focus on women services business entrepreneurs.[7]
Homophobia
In 1974, Dorothy Riddle was appointed to the American Psychological Association Task Force on the Status of Lesbian and Gay Male Psychologists, leading to APA's official statement in 1975 that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, and their condemnation of the conversion therapy to change a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. The APA's position paved the way for the official change in status of homosexuality from a psychiatric disorder to a lifestyle.[1][8]
In parallel with her work on the APA Task Force on the Status of Lesbian and Gay Male Psychologists, Riddle developed a scale for measuring homophobia while a professor in the Psychology Department of the University of Arizona.[9] The tool became to be known as the Riddle homophobia scale and was adopted by many organizations in anti-discriminatory training and for measuring changes in a range of other social attitudes as well.[1][10]
Riddle showed in her studies that lesbians, gays and bisexuals have the potential to be positive role models of nontraditional gender roles, individual relationships and individual diversity,[11] she investigated the psychological effects of negative self-image caused by society's stigmatization of homosexuality and the lack of same-sex support systems,[12] and argued that lesbian patients need lesbian psychotherapists free from heterosexual bias to better understand their problems.[13]
Services
In 1981, Riddle joined the faculty of the American Graduate School of International Management in Glendale, Arizona where she developed the first courses on international services trade and international services management.
In 1986, she published Service-Led Growth: The Role of the Service Sector in World Development, an analysis of the service sectors of 81 countries at four levels of development.[2] It was the first major study to focus on the critical role of the service sector in economic development and has been widely credited for that.[14][15][16][17]
Over the following years, she worked in 85 countries, serving on advisory committees to trade and economic development ministers and assisting governments in policy development, implementation and evaluation to leverage service industries in driving economic growth.[2][18]
When international negotiations on services trade began in the early 1990s, Riddle was appointed to the group advising the Canadian Minister of International Trade on services trade negotiation issues. She then worked with a range of Asian, Caribbean, and Latin American countries on how to manage requests and offers in services trade negotiations. Riddle was also appointed to Statistics Canada’s Advisory Committee on Services Statistics and subsequently drew on that expertise to help various developing countries improve their capture of services statistics. In addition, she was an early member of the Services World Forum and the Global Services Network.[2]
In 1996, Riddle became the first Canadian appointed by the Prime Minister to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and co-chaired ABAC that year.[2]
To assist the service sector, she developed various assessment tools for export readiness, e-business readiness, and business competitiveness, and co-developed the Employment Readiness Scale[1] in line with her other psychometric research.
Personal life
In 1989, Riddle immigrated to Canada[4] and became a Canadian citizen in 1993. She currently lives near Vancouver, British Columbia with her partner.
Recognition
Dorothy Riddle is considered one of the early American feminists and acknowledged for her foundational work on women's and gender issues.[4]
She has been recognized by the United Nations as a leading world expert on services trade and services in economic development.[1][18]
Riddle is listed in the Who’s Who of American Women, the World Who’s Who of Women, and the International Who’s Who of Professionals.[2]
See also
- Riddle scale
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Distinguished alumni: Dorothy Irene Riddle Woodstock School, Accessed Dec 17, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g About the founder Service Growth, Accessed Dec. 17, 2010.
- ^ Dorothy Riddle LinkedIn, Accessed Dec. 19, 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f g Love, B. A., (2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
- ^ Davis, S. F., and Buskist, W. (ed), (2008). 21st century psychology: A reference handbook, Thousand Oaks; SAGE Publications, 29
- ^ Hill, M. (ed), (1998) Feminist therapy as political act, 21 (2), Binghamton, New York: Haworth Press
- ^ Research Associates UBC Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, Accessed Dec. 23, 2010.
- ^ Kimble, G. A. and Wertheimer, M., (2000). Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, Vol. 4.Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
- ^ Staten Island LGBT history Staten Island LGBT Community Center, Accessed Dec. 19, 2010.
- ^ Wall, V., (1995). Beyond tolerance: Gays, lesbians and bisexuals on campus. A handbook of structured experiences and exercises for training and development. American College Personnel Association.
- ^ Garnets, L., and Kimmel, D. S. (eds), (2003) Psychological perspectives on lesbian, gay and bisexual experiences, 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press.
- ^ Boston Lesbian Psychologies Collective, (1987). Lesbian psychologies: explorations and challenges. Illinois: The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.
- ^ Falco, K. L., (1991). Psychotherapy with lesbian clients: theory into practice. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
- ^ Boddewyn, J. J., Halbrich, M. B., and Perry, A. C., (1986). Service multinationals: Conceptualization, measurement and theory. Journal of International Business Studies, 17 (3), 41-57.
- ^ Malecki, E., (1991). Technology and economic development: The dynamics of local, regional, and national change. London, Boston: Addison Wesley Longman.
- ^ Austin, J. E., (2002). Managing in developing countries: Strategic analysis and operating techniques. New York: Simon and Schuster.
- ^ Bryson, J. R., Daniels, P. W., and Warf, B., (2004). Service worlds: People, organizations and technologies. Abington, New York: Routledge.
- ^ a b The A List: APEC Business Advisory Council members 1996-2006, 7th ed. Makati City: Philippines: APEC Business Advisory Council, (2006).
Categories:- American psychologists
- American feminists
- 1944 births
- Living people
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