Joanne Meyerowitz

About

Joanne Meyerowitz is the Arthur Unobskey Professor of American Studies and History at Yale University, currently on leave in spring 2026. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her scholarly work focuses on American history, gender, sexuality, and social movements, with notable publications including 'Women Adrift: Independent Wage Earners in Chicago, 1880-1930,' 'How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States,' and 'A War on Global Poverty: The Lost Promise of Redistribution and the Rise of Microcredit' (2021). Her research explores themes related to women's economic independence, sexual identity, and U.S. involvement in global anti-poverty campaigns, emphasizing how these issues intersect with social and political developments. Before joining Yale in 2004, she taught at the University of Cincinnati and Indiana University, and she served as the editor of the Journal of American History. Meyerowitz has received fellowships from prestigious organizations such as the American Council of Learned Societies, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Humanities Center. Her books have garnered awards from various institutions, and her public writing has appeared in major newspapers and magazines. She has been recognized for her teaching with awards at both the University of Cincinnati and Yale. An elected member of the Society of American Historians and a past president of the…

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Law
• Philosophy
• Literature
• Art
• Aesthetics
• Criminology
• Economic growth
• Development economics

Selected publications

• Sex Change and the Popular Press: Historical Notes on Transsexuality in the United States, 1930–1955

  GLQ A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies · 1998-01-01 · 69 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Research Article| April 01 1998 Sex Change and the Popular Press: Historical Notes on Transsexuality in the United States, 1930–1955 Joanne Meyerowitz Joanne Meyerowitz Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google GLQ (1998) 4 (2): 159–187. https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-4-2-159 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Joanne Meyerowitz; Sex Change and the Popular Press: Historical Notes on Transsexuality in the United States, 1930–1955. GLQ 1 Apri…

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• Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline Material: Responses to Girlie Pictures in the Mid-Twentieth-Century U.S.

  Journal of women's history · 1996-09-01 · 52 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Women, Cheesecake, and Borderline material: Responses to Girlie Pictures in the Mid-Twentieth-Century U.S. Joanne Meyerowitz The proliferation in the mass media of sexual representations of women is, arguably, among the most significant developments in twentiethcentury U.S. women's history, the history of sexuality, and the history of popular culture. Stated simply, illustrations and photographs of scantily clad and nude women, once considered disreputable, now grace billboards , calendars, tele…

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• A History of “Gender”

  The American Historical Review · 2008-12-01 · 45 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  s "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" has no discernible date of expiration. A cursory Google search leads to dozens of syllabi that feature it as required reading, and the figures from JSTOR attest to its durable popularity. Of all the American Historical Review articles on JSTOR, Scott's has had by far the most traffic. Since JSTOR first began posting scholarly articles online in 1997, users have accessed "Gender" more than 38,000 times and printed more than 25,000 copies. For t…

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• History and September 11th

  2003-01-01 · 44 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Introduction - Joanne Meyerowtiz 1. In the Wake of September 11: The Clash of What? - Michael H. Hunt 2. Damming Afghanistan: Modernization in a Buffer State - Nick Cullather 3. A Short History of and Terrorism: The Turkish Case - Nur Bilge Criss 4. Notes on the CIA's Secret War in Afghanistan - John Prados 5. Rescuing Women and Children - Emily S. Rosenberg 6. A Cultural History of the War without End - Melani McAlister 7. The September 11, 2001, Oral History Narrative and Memory Project: 8. A…

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• THINKING SEX WITH AN ANDROGYNE

  GLQ A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies · 2010-12-14 · 41 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This article puts Gayle Rubin's 1984 article “Thinking Sex” in dialogue with Earl Lind's 1918 book Autobiography of an Androgyne. Rooted in different historical moments, the two works address distinct debates about the nature, politics, and ethics of sexual and gender variance. Taken together, they remind us that our varied attempts to label, describe, and explain gender and sexuality—to define them, knit them together, and tug them apart—have a complex history shaped and stamped by the particul…

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Frequent coauthors

• Stephanie Coontz

  2 shared

• Vernon A. Rosario

  University of California, Los Angeles

  2 shared

• Alice Kessler‐Harris

  1 shared

• Nicolas Roussellier

  1 shared

• Gail Hershatter

  1 shared

• Daniel Horowitz

  1 shared

• Mario G. Rossi

  1 shared

• Nancy Woloch

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies
• Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation
• Fellowship from the National Humanities Center
• Fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
• Fellowship from the Social Science Research Council

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Laura Wexlerh-50
• Charles Musserh-21
• Lisa Loweh-21