19 Facts About Ruth Bleier

Ruth Harriet Bleier was an American neurophysiologist who is one of the first feminist scholars to explore how gender biases have shaped biology.

Ruth Bleier's career consisted of combining her academic interests with her commitment to social justice for women and the lower-class.

Ruth Bleier was the daughter of Russian or East European 1905 immigrantsw and was raised in New Kensington, Pennsylvania with her four brothers.

Ruth Bleier married Leon Eisenberg, and together they raised 2 children and ran a medical clinic for the impoverished population of Baltimore.

Ruth Bleier gave up her medical practice in order to teach psychiatry and physiology at the Adolph Meyer Laboratory of Neuroanatomy.

Since she lost her legal ability to practice medicine, Ruth Bleier went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1957 to study neuroanatomy with Professor Jerzy Rose, completing her post-doctoral fellowship in 1961.

Ruth Bleier then joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison department of Neurophysiology in 1967; at the same time Bleier was working with Weisman Center of Mental Retardation and the Wisconsin Regional Primate Center.

Ruth Bleier helped establish the Woman's Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin in 1975, and served as chair from 1982 to 1986.

Ruth Bleier began to focus on improving women's access and station in higher education.

Ruth Bleier argued against the idea of sociobiology as an explanation of conventional gender roles.

Ruth Bleier published work that brought together feminist theories and natural sciences: Science and Gender: A Critique of Biology and Its Theories on Women and Feminist Approaches to Science.

Ruth Bleier advocated for civil rights with the Maryland Committee for Peace in the early 1950s.

Ruth Bleier advocated for the end of the Korean War; this work lead to the subpoena from HUAAC, which was run by Senator Joseph McCarthy at the time period.

At the hearing, Ruth Bleier reported the Committee for Peace had no members and would not confirm that she was head of the committee.

Ruth Bleier was chair of the AFW when Title IX was signed in to law and was pivotal in achieving more equitable conditions for women's athletics at Wisconsin.

Ruth Bleier has published works detailing the anatomy of the cat, guinea pig, and rhesus monkey hypothalamuses.

Ruth Bleier came out as a lesbian after her marriage to her husband ended in divorce and began her work to create lesbian rights within the women's movement.

Additionally, Ruth Bleier advocated for abortion rights with her partner, Elizabeth Karlin.

Ruth Bleier died at home in Wisconsin on January 4,1988, from cancer at sixty-four years old.