Beatrice Blyth Whiting (14 April 1914, in New York City – 29 September 2003, in Cambridge, Massachusetts), was an American anthropologist specializing in the comparative study of child development.
[1] Together with her husband John Whiting, she was a key figure in the Harvard Department of Social Relations and a pioneer in the cross-cultural study of childhood and child development.
In 1966, the Whitings founded the Child Development Research Unit at the University of Nairobi to conduct more intensive studies in Kenya.
In the 1980s, after their retirement from Harvard, the Whitings turned their attention to older children, directing the Comparative Adolescence Project.
[4] When not in Cambridge or on fieldwork expeditions, the Whitings spent significant time in Chilmark, on Martha's Vineyard, where John had grown up.