Widely known for her work in the psychology of sex differences in child development, Eleanor E. Maccoby has achieved a distinguished career as an educator as well. Although her interests lay primarily in studying the social factors that influence human development, she has also considered the interweaving contributions of other factors, such as biology and cognitive processes. In fact, for her doctoral dissertation (which she completed under the guidance of B.F. Skinner), she conducted experiments in learning and reinforcement.

Born in 1917 in Tacoma, Wash., she received her undergraduate education at Reed College and the University of Washington (1939). After working for a government agency during the war years, she returned to school, earning her master's degree (1949) and Ph.D. (1950) from the University of Michigan. Upon finishing her doctoral work, she joined Robert Sears at Harvard in a large-scale study investigating whether certain parental practices were related to children's personality characteristics. That study resulted in a influential book, Patterns of Child Rearing (1957). In 1958, she joined the faculty at Stanford University, where she served as professor and chair of the psychology department and is now Barbara Kimball Browning Professor of Psychology, Emerita.

Maccoby also was a featured speaker at the College's ninth Nobel Conference, "The Destiny of Women," in 1973. Her 1974 book, The Psychology of Sex Differences, represented an unparalleled synthesis of research in area of sex differences in child development.