Margaret T. Hodgen (1890–1977)

Margaret T. Hodgen was born in Woodland, California. She attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1913 and her Ph.D. in economics in 1925. In 1920, she published a book called Factory Work for Girls, and her doctoral dissertation was published in book form as Workers' Education in England and the United States (1925). In 1924, she became a teaching fellow in the Department of Social Institutions and rose to become professor of sociology. She served as chairperson of the department from 1937 to 1946. In 1949-1951, during the Cold War, she refused to sign the Regents' Loyalty Oath required of employees by the university and was dismissed. On the orders of the California State Supreme Court, she was reappointed to her position, along with other non-signers, but remained on leave until her retirement in 1955. Most of her early writing focused on women, labor, and race, but as her career progressed, she also wrote about the history of ideas, cultural diffusion, and the comparison of histories.