As we continue to honor Women's History Month, we feature an interview from our oral history collection. In this 38-second clip, Gerda Lerner describes the need, in the second half of the twentieth century, to change the history profession. Early in her career, Lerner set out to do just that: she was one of the founders of the academic field of women's history. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she launched the first Ph.D. program in women's history.
Gerda Lerner was an Austrian-born American historian and author. In 1980, she moved to Madison and was appointed Robinson Edwards Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she taught until retiring in 1991. During her career, she wrote several books, including The Creation of Patriarchy (1986), The Creation of Feminist Consciousness (1993), and Why History Matters (1997). Ms. Lerner left a lasting impact on the field of history and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Lerner passed away in Madison in 2013 at the age of 92. To read the essential information from this oral history, here’s its catalog record. To hear more about Lerner's experience before and at UW-Madison, contact the Archives to listen to the full interview.
Emma Strenski, George L. Mosse Digital Archival Intern
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Image is from UW-Madison Archives, S05705
For more information about UW campus history, contact [email protected] or visit library.wisc.edu/archives. On, Wisconsin!
