I received my Ph.D. from the History of Ideas Department at Brandeis University in 1975, working under the direction of the philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre. My first teaching position, from 1973-1974, was in the Philosophy Department at The University of Lancaster, Lancaster England. I began researching and teaching about Women and Gender Studies in the late 1970s when I was on the faculty at The State University of New York Albany. In January of 2000 I joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis as the Susan E. and William P. Stiritz Distinguished Professor of Women and Gender Studies and Professor of History. I have written and edited many books and articles about gender, including, my first book, Gender and History: The Limits of Social Theory in the Age of the Family (Columbia University Press, 1986), Identity Before Identity Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and The Second Wave: A Reader in Feminist Theory ( Routledge, 1997). I was the editor of a 32 volume book series titled "Thinking Gender" with Routledge. My writings have been translated and published in French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Chinese, Turkish and Serbo Croation.