Biography

Photo by Yona Werver

Dr. Chesler is co-founder of the still ongoing Association for Women in Psychology (1969) and co-founder of the National Women's Health Network (1974). She is a charter member of the Women's Forum (1973-74), and a co-founder and Board member of the International Committee for the Jerusalem based Women of the Wall (1989-2009).

Dr. Chesler's fourteen books and thousands of articles and speeches have inspired countless people. Her books include: the classic Women and Madness (1972); Women, Money and Power (1976); About Men (1978); With Child: A Diary of Motherhood (1979); Mothers on Trial: The Battle for Children and Custody(1986); Sacred Bond: The Legacy of Baby M (1988); Patriarchy: Notes of an Expert Witness (1994); Feminist Foremothers in Women's Studies, Psychology, and Mental Health (1995); Letters to a Young Feminist (1998); Woman's Inhumanity to Woman (2002); Women of the Wall: Claiming Sacred Ground at Judaism's Holy Site (2002); The New Anti-Semitism. The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About It (2003); The Death of Feminism. What's Next in the Struggle for Women's Freedom (2005).

A revised and updated edition of Women and Madness was published in 2005; A new edition of Woman's Inhumanity to Woman with a new Introduction was published in 2009; and a Twenty Fifth anniversary edition of Mothers on Trial with eight new chapters was published in 2011. In 2009 and 2010, Dr. Chesler published two pioneering academic studies on honor killings and an academic article about the Burqa. All appeared in Middle East Quarterly. A third study about honor killings is in press (2012). Her work has been translated into many European languages and into Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Hebrew.

Since 9/11, Dr. Chesler has focused on the rights of women, dissidents, and gays in the Islamic world; on anti-Semitism; the psychology of terrorism; the nature of propaganda, and honor-related violence. She has testified for Muslim and ex-Muslim women who are seeking asylum or citizenship based on their credible belief that their families will honor kill them.

Over the years, Dr. Chesler has appeared in the mainstream, leftwing, and rightwing media. She has been on The Today Show and The O'Reilly Factor; on Donahue, Geraldo, and Oprah—and on the 700 Club; Israel National radio, and Al-Hurrah. Dr. Chesler has been on Nightline, Court TV, the History Channel, MSNBC, NPR, the MacNeil-Lehrer Report and CNN—and on FOX News. For three years, she was a regular contributor to NPR's program "At the Opera." In the last few years, she has been interviewed hundreds of times in the media about anti-Semitism, jihadic terrorism and honor-related violence against women, including honor killings, and has delivered many lectures on these subjects.

Dr. Chesler has been published, interviewed, and reviewed in The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The Times of London, The Weekly Standard, National Review, Il Foglio, Ha'aretz, The New York Times, FrontPageMag.com, Salon, The Globe and Mail, The London Guardian, Yediot Aharonot, Science Magazine, The Jewish Week, The Jewish Press, etc. She is currently a Culture columnist at PJMedia, (formerly Pajamas Media), a contributor to FOXNews.com, and a regular contributor to Israel National News. Her archives reside at Duke University.

There are over 4 million references to Dr. Chesler's work online. She has been profiled in many encyclopedias, including Feminists Who Have Changed America, Jewish Women in America, and in the latest Encyclopedia Judaica. Approximately 100,000+ people visit her website each year and from more than 180 countries; the majority are from North America and Europe. She may be reached at her website www.phyllis-chesler.com.

• Phyllis Chesler's Facebook Page
• Curriculum Vitae
• Courtroom Experience
• Entry on Phyllis Chesler in Encyclopedia Judaica
• Entry on Phyllis Chesler in Jewish Women in America