Barbara J. Risman (Editor),

Barbara J. Risman is a Distinguished Professor Emerita of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, previously serving as Head of the Department of Sociology and as Alumni Distinguished Research Professor at North Carolina State University. She earned her B.A. in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Northwestern University in 1976 and her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1983, and is renowned for her theory of gender as a social structure outlined in her book *Gender Vertigo: American Families in Transition* (1998). Risman has edited key works like *Handbook of the Sociology of Gender* and *Families As They Really Are*, and received awards including the American Sociological Association’s 2011 Award for the Public Understanding of Sociology.