Schwartz, Pepper 1945-

PERSONAL:

Born May 11, 1945, in Chicago, IL; daughter of Julius J. (an attorney) and Gertrude Schwartz; divorced; children: two. Education: Washington University, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1967, M.A. (magna cum laude), 1968; Yale University, M.Phil., 1970, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Seattle, WA. Office—Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105.

CAREER:

University of Washington, Seattle, member of faculty, beginning 1972. Distinguished visiting professorship, University of Denver, CO, 2005. Member of Washington State Government Commission on Venereal Disease, 1974-77, and of National Institute of Mental Health review committee. Columnist for uTango.com, PerfectMatch.com, and Medhelp.org.

MEMBER:

National Assembly for Policy Research and Development (trustee), National Women's Resource Center, Council for Women's Equality (vice-chairwoman), American Sociological Association (member of council on sex roles, 1975-76; member of committee on the status of women, 1977-80), Pacific Sociological Association, Sociologists for Women in Society, YWCA (national board member), Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Russell Sage Foundation grant, 1975; National Science Foundation grant, 1977-80; Outstanding Young Men and Women of the Future Award, Seattle Chamber of Commerce and Time-Life, 1978; award for contribution to the Convention and Visitors Industry, Seattle and King County; Alumni Achievement Award, National Mortar Board, 1991; Matrix Award in Education, Women in Communications, 1992; International Women's Forum award, Washington State, 1994; Fellow, Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, 1995; Bone Distinguished lecturer, Illinois State University, 1997; AKD Distinguished Professor Lecture, AKD-American Sociological Association, 2000; Distinguished Lectureship Award, "Myths and Misunderstanding about Sex and Love," University of Washington Women's Center, 2001; Distinguished Voice and Lifetime Friend award, Mothers' Voices, for "Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Children about Sex and Character," 2001; "Public Understanding of Sociology" award, American Sociological Association, 2004-05; Outstanding Teacher in the Social Sciences and Most Engaging Lecturer on Campus, University of Washington, 2007.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Richard Feller and Elaine Fox, and contributor) A Student's Guide to Sex on Campus, New American Library, 1971.

(With Janet Lever) Women at Yale, Bobbs-Merrill, 1971.

(With Judith Long Laws) Sociological Perspectives on Female Sexuality, Dryden, 1977.

(With Judith Long Laws) Sexual Scripts: The Social Construction of Female Sexuality, University Press of America (Washington, DC), 1981.

(With Philip Blumstein) American Couples: Money, Work, Sex, Morrow (New York, NY), 1983.

(Editor, with Barbara J. Risman) Gender in Intimate Relationships: A Microstructural Approach, Wadsworth (Belmont, CA), 1989.

Peer Marriage: How Love between Equals Really Works, Free Press (New York, NY), Maxwell Macmillan (New York, NY), 1994.

The Great Sex Weekend: A Forty-eight-hour Guide to Rekindling Sparks for Bold, Busy, or Bored Lovers: Includes a Twenty-four-hour Plan for the Really Busy, G.P. Putnam's Sons (New York, NY), 1997.

(With Debra W. Haffner) What I've Learned about Sex: Leading Sex Educators, Therapists, and Researchers Share Their Secrets, Berkley (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Virginia Rutter) The Gender of Sexuality, Pine Forge Press (Thousand Oaks, CA), 1998.

(With Virginia Rutter) The Love Test: Romance and Relationship Self-Quizzes Developed by Psychologists and Sociologists, Berkley (New York, NY), 1998.

Two Hundred and One Questions to Ask Your Kids/Two Hundred and One Questions to Ask Your Parents, Avon Books (New York, NY), 2000.

(With Dominic Cappello) Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children about Sex and Character, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.

Everything You Know about Love and Sex Is Wrong: Twenty-five Relationship Myths Redefined to Achieve Happiness and Fulfillment in Your Intimate Life, Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.

The Lifetime Love and Sex Quiz Book, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2002.

Finding Your Perfect Match, Perigee Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, Collins (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to Yale Law Journal, Sexual Behavior, Ms., and New Woman.

SIDELIGHTS:

A specialist on the sociology of gender, Pepper Schwartz has written and lectured about sex for both academic and general audiences. In addition to scholarly works such as Sociological Perspectives on Female Sexuality and Sexual Scripts: The Social Construction of Female Sexuality, both written with Judith Long Laws, Schwartz has written several books of popular advice, including Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children about Sex and Character, cowritten with Dominic Cappello; Everything You Know about Love and Sex Is Wrong: Twenty-five Relationship Myths Redefined to Achieve Happiness and Fulfillment in Your Intimate Life, and The Lifetime Love and Sex Quiz Book. Schwartz also writes advice columns for uTango.com, Perfectmatch.com, and Medhelp.org. It was not until her midlife divorce, however, that Schwartz decided to write about her own sex life. In Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, she recounts her experiences reentering the world of dating and romance after the end of a twenty-three-year marriage.

The intimate nature of this subject, Schwartz knew, would create some controversy. "I didn't want to cloud my previous scientific work with personal information," she admitted in a Seattle Woman magazine feature by Lisa Albers. "I wrote it to try to inspire women my age … that they shouldn't give up on their sexual and romantic lives." The idea that older women lose interest in sex, she added, is nonsense. "I hoped by talking about myself I could show women that even if there were a lot of miserable situations in dating at this age, there was also love, passion, adventure and as much excitement and pleasure as there ever had been." Schwartz describes several highly passionate encounters, including a torrid romance with a man who enjoys providing her with oral sex, and an episode resulting in orgasm in the back seat of a New York City taxi. Describing Prime as a "frank, shocking, even courageous memoir," John Marshall, writing in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, commented that Schwartz "examines the side of life that most people keep private and she does that with verve, guts and what seems utter openness, candor and vulnerability." A writer for Publishers Weekly found the book an "unusual and appealing mixture of realistic dating tips and shrewd relationship advice" that doesn't shy away from discussions of some of the pitfalls of sexual relationships. Schwartz, Marshall concluded, is "an exemplary chronicler of her deliciously sensuous life, self-aware, self-critical, self-mocking. She ventures fearlessly into erotic territory where few writers dare tread in print and produces a sultry memoir with many revelations and inspirations for both women and men."

One of the most gratifying things about writing Prime, Schwartz told Albers, is the response from readers who have been helped by the book. "It happens almost daily that some woman comes up to me and says I've inspired her to put herself back out there," Schwartz said. That women do not necessarily have to settle for sexless lives just because they are no longer in their 20s and 30s, Schwartz added, is the most important message of her book.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Contemporary Sociology, March 1, 1995, Kathleen Gerson, review of Peer Marriage: How Love between Equals Really Works, p. 235; November 1, 1998, Constance L. Shehan, review of The Gender of Sexuality, p. 587.

Cosmopolitan, December 1, 1983, Carol E. Rinzler, review of American Couples: Money, Work, Sex, p. 32.

Gender & Society, June 1, 1991, Janet Saltzman Chafetz, review of Gender in Intimate Relationships: A Microstructural Approach, p. 265.

Journal of Marriage and the Family, May 1, 1999, Denise A. Donnelly, review of The Gender of Sexuality, p. 547.

Journal of Sex Research, fall, 1995, Kathryn N. Black, review of Peer Marriage.

Library Journal, May 1, 1994, Scott Johnson, review of Peer Marriage, p. 127; October 1, 2001, review of Ten Talks Parents Must Have with Their Children about Sex and Character, p. 72.

Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1983, Carolyn See, review of American Couples, p. 1.

Mother Jones, January 1, 1984, Gloria Jacobs, review of American Couples, p. 56.

Nation, March 10, 1984, Daniel Menaker, review of American Couples, p. 296.

National Catholic Reporter, March 23, 1984, Joan Beifuss, review of American Couples, p. 17.

New York Times, April 10, 2007, Claudia Dreifus, "A Sociologist of Sex, for the Benefit of the Masses."

New York Times Book Review, October 23, 1983, Carol Tavris, review of American Couples, p. 7.

Psychology Today, July 1, 1993, "Psychologists at Home: How They Live," p. 48.

Publishers Weekly, August 26, 1983, review of American Couples, p. 374; April 23, 2007, review of Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years, p. 39.

Redbook, August, 2007, "Dating after Divorce: When Her 23-year Marriage Ended, Love Expert Pepper Schwartz, Ph.D., Realized Even She Had a Thing or Two to Learn about Dating and Sex," p. 95.

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, September 1, 1999, Robin E. Roy, review of The Gender of Sexuality, p. 483.

Vogue, October, 1983, Anthea Disney, review of American Couples, p. 110.

Wall Street Journal Western Edition, December 7, 1983, Bickley Townsend, review of American Couples, p. 26.

ONLINE

Perfectmatch,http://www.perfectmatch.com/ (February 19, 2008), Pepper Schwartz profile.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer,http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ (February 19, 2008), John Marshall, "UW Sexologist Pepper Schwartz Bares Her Sizzingly Lusty Life in ‘Prime.’"

Seattle Woman,http://www.seattlewomanmagazine.com/ (February 19, 2008), Lisa Albers, "Dr. Pepper's Prime."

University of Washington Web site,http://faculty.washington.edu/ (February 19, 2008), Pepper Schwartz faculty profile.

Wayne and Tamara,http://www.wayneandtamara.com/ (February 19, 2008), "Pepper Schwartz."