GREDA LENER

-Aastha Joshi

Gerda Lerner was bornin 30 April 1920 in Austria. She was Austrian born American historian and a women’s history author. Apart from scholarly publication she wrote numerous poems, fiction, screenplays, theater pieces and an autobiography. She also served as the president of organization of American historians from 1980 to 1981. She was also appointed as the history professor of Robinson Edward in Wisconsin until retiring. She was the founder of women’s history and in 1963 while she was still an undergraduate she taught “Great women’s in American history” which is considered as the first regular course for women in the field of women’s history. She played a key role in development of the curricula of the women’s history and formation of degree programs in women’s history at sarah Lawrence college and Wisconsin university were she also launched PH.D programe. Gerda Lerner was the first child of her parents and she had younger sister. She mentioned that as a child she has strained relationships. In 1938 at the time of anti-Nazi resistance Gerda got involved in it, because of which she and her mother were behind the bars and occupied the cell for 6weeks.In 1939 she immigrated to America on scholarship of bobby Jensen, her socialist fiance. Her marriage with Jensen did not work efficiently after she met carl Lerner who was a theater director. In 1951, Gerda Lerner collaborated with poet Eve Merriam on a musical, The Singing of Women. Her novel No Farewell was published in 1955. In the early 1960s, Lerner and her husband co authored the screenplay of the film Black Like Me, based on the book by white journalist John Howard Griffin. In 1966, Lerner became a founding member of National Organisation for Women.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Lerner published scholarly books and articles that helped establish women’s history as a recognized field of study. Her 1969article “The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson”, published in the journal American studies, was an early and influential example of class analysis in women’s history. She was among the first to bring a consciously feminist notion to the study of history. In 1979, Lerner chaired The Women’s History Institute,

a fifteen-day conference at sarah college. It was attended by leaders of national organizations for women and girls

IMPORTANT WORKS

1. Black Women in White America,documentary

2. The Female Experience

3. Creation of patriarchy

4. Fireweed: A political autobiography

5. Creation of feminist consciousness

She died on January 2 2013 in Wisconsin at the age of 92.