Gerda Lerner

Gerda Lerner (1920–2013) was a prominent historian, activist, educator, writer, and one of the founders of the study of women’s history. She received her PhD in history from Columbia University, and at her first academic post at Sarah Lawrence College, she developed the first graduate program in women’s history. She went on to teach at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she created the first PhD program in women’s history in the United States. Lerner is the editor of Black Women in White America: A Documentary History, and is the author of many publications, including The Creation of Patriarchy and Why History Matters: Life and Thought.