Jane earned her PhD in American Studies at Brown University with a specialty
in women and gender history, history of
sexuality and 20th century American culture. Before turning to full time writing,
she worked at some of New England’s
finest colleges and universities, including Harvard University, Brown University,
MIT and Mt. Holyoke College.
Her first book, Desiring Revolution, examines 1970s feminists’ interest in sexuality and their engagement with not only
the major thinkers in the study of sex in
the 20th century such as Freud, Kinsey,
Masters and Johnson but the counter culture and its reshaping of sexual pleasure
broadly. Feminist engagement proved absolutely critical to expanding the “sexual
revolution” to women. Her newest book,
The Dinner Party, traces the making of
Judy Chicago’s iconic piece of feminist
art, the visible and invisible feminist infrastructure that supported and produced
the work, and its controversial tour. The
Dinner Party, debated on the floor of the
US House of Representatives in 1990 as
pornography, found a permanent home
at the Brooklyn Museum in 2007 where
it continues to draw in large audiences.
Gerhard is also a co-author of a US
women’s history textbook, Women and
the Making of America. Gerhard lives in
Providence, RI.
