Gerda Lerner (1920-2013) was the most influential figure in developing women’s and gender history since the 1960s as an Austrian-born American historian and women’s history author. For those of you tuning in for the first time, welcome! Here’s the deal: Every weekday, we highlight the stories of iconic women in history you may not know about, but definitely should. We’re talking about women from around the world and throughout history. Each month is themed. This month we’re going back to school, highlighting educators and intellectuals.
This month, we're going back to school with stories of the most influential women educators in history.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
Today’s educator spent her academic life encouraging people to pursue the field that she was pioneering. She single-handedly established women’s history as a legitimate department of scholarship. Let’s talk about Gerda Lerner!
Gerda Hedwig Kronstein was born on April 30, 1920, in Vienna, Austria to Robert and Ilona Kronstein. Her family was an affluent Jewish family that defied many of the norms at the time. For starters, their money came from her father using her mother’s dowry to open a successful pharmaceutical enterprise. Her mother was a much less conventional bohemian artist, who encouraged sexual freedom and vegetarianism.
Because of their vastly different lifestyles, Robert and Ilona had a contentious relationship. Ilona knew that if she asked for a divorce, she would lose custody of Gerda and her younger sister, Nora. So Ilona and Robert agreed that they would lead separate but discreet lives under the same roof. Gerda and Nora had to make appointments to see their mother, who was relegated to a single room separated from the rest of the apartment. Ilona enjoyed avant-garde art and had many young suitors, while Robert had a separate apartment for his mistress.
Being a witness to her parents’ unorthodox arrangement exposed Gerda to female independence and caused her to question imposed societal norms. As Gerda got older, she flirted with cultural and political radicalism.
When the civil war began in Vienna in 1934, Gerda’s father unknowingly sent her to stay with an anti-semitic family in England. After this realization, Robert allowed Gerda to leave and enroll in a youth camp in Wales run by the Communist J.B.S Haldane. Gerda subscribed to the ideology immediately.
She eventually returned to Vienna. But things were not the same. After the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938, Gerda’s father was tipped off that he was going to be arrested. He fled to Lichtenstein where he had opened another pharmacy. Gerda and her mother were collateral for their father’s absence. When the Gestapo showed up at their house with a warrant for his arrest, they arrested and jailed the two women in an effort to pressure Robert into returning. Gerda and Ilona were imprisoned separately for six weeks before being released because Robert sold his Austrian assets to pay for their freedom. Gerda has said that it was the most important experience of her life because she didn’t think she was going to come out alive.
In 1939, Gerda immigrated to the United States under sponsorship from her fiance, Bernard Jensen. The two divorced the next year as the marriage was exclusively for immigration purposes. Soon after, Gerda fell in love with Communist theater director, Carl Lerner. The couple married in 1941 and relocated to Los Angeles to pursue Carl’s dreams of becoming a film director.
Hollywood was tough for Gerda. She was prickly, intense, and averse to small talk or frivolous gossip.
In 1943, Gerda became a US citizen. She joined the USA Communist Party. In 1946, the same year their daughter, Stephanie was born, Gerda helped found and lead the LA chapter of the Communist front organization, the Congress of American Women or CAW. Through CAW, she was introduced to the plight of Black women, trade unionism, and civil rights. A year later, she gave birth to their son, Dan.
As McCarthyism began to spread, the Lerners struggled. Carl’s career flatlined because of his politics. The family moved back to New York and disassociated from the Communist Party. While back in New York, Gerda published an autobiographical novel called No Farewell. Between 1958 and 1966, Gerda earned her bachelor’s degree from the New School for Social Research and her master’s and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. During her senior year in 1962, she taught one of the first college courses in women’s history called “Great Women in American History”.
Gerda’s interest in the intersection of race and women led her to write her dissertation on Sarah and Angelina Grimke — the white abolitionist sisters of South Carolina. Through this topic, Gerda showed her commitment to challenging racism and exposing the racist origins of the American political economy. Just one year after earning her Ph.D., a reputable publisher published the dissertation.
From that point on, the rest of Gerda’s career was dedicated to women’s and African American history. She took a job teaching women’s history at Sarah Lawrence college in 1968. With fellow historian Joan Kelly, Gerda fought to build a respected women’s history graduate program. In 1972, they realized their goal and created the first master’s degree program in women’s history in the U.S.
That same year, Gerda published her most influential piece of work, Black Women in White America: A Documentary History. It was a collection of primary sources that documented Black women’s contribution to history despite slavery, racism, and oppression over the course of 350 years. It was one of the first of its kind because critics believed African American women’s history didn’t have enough sources to be credible. But Gerda busted that myth and presented the world with a robust group of sources that proved African American women’s history can and should be written.
Although Gerda’s time at Sarah Lawrence was one characterized by success and triumph, it was not without hardship. Carl developed a brain tumor and Gerda took on the role of his primary caretaker. He passed away in 1973. She wrote a poignant memoir about the experience called A Death of One’s Own in 1978.
In 1980, Gerda accepted a job as a professor at the University of Wisconsin. There, she built the country’s first Ph.D. program in women’s history. Her classes were more than just educational; they were innately political.They were rousing, inspirational lectures that encouraged action.
While at the university, she began a new study inspired by the changes in the women’s liberation movement. She used anthropology, archeology, and mythology to write Creation of Patriarchy and Creation of Feminist Consciousness — two volumes of work that trace oppression back to misogyny and the patriarchy.
She devoted her career to illuminating the idea that women’s history mattered. That it had the power to alter the course of human events.
Gerda’s impact was recognized by the Organization of American Historians when they elected her president in 1981 — she was the first woman in 50 years to hold the title.
Gerda Lerner died on January 2, 2013, in Madison, Wisconsin, at the age of 92.
All month, we’re talking about women who changed the world of education.
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Talk to you tomorrow!