The Empathy Diaries: A Memoir

Turkle attends Radcliffe college, a female liberal arts college in Massachusetts, on an academic scholarship and studies social sciences. In her freshman year, she lives in a dormitory with other girls who are the first of their families to attend college, many of whom are also on scholarships for Jewish and Black students. Turkle finds it difficult to connect. The other girls in the dormitory view her as desperate and accuse her of stealing their things to feel like part of the group. When one of the dormitory girls, Lynne, explains this to her, Turkle feels their conversation is a lesson in empathy, as Lynne understands Turkle’s position rather than accusing her.

Turkle navigates the college’s structural and cultural sexism, which she accepts at the time but in hindsight finds “intolerable.” Many opportunities are reserved for men only: eligibility for graduation prizes, participation in psychological experiments, and reading privileges in the undergraduate library. In addition, Turkle’s lack of political experience and knowledge excludes her from a seminar in politics that she desires to attend. She focuses on becoming the best social sciences student that she can. Influenced by her professor Samuel Beer, she develops an approach of intellectual pluralism to her studies.