Pepper Schwartz (born May 11, 1945) is an American

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists app ...

and sociologist teaching at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. She is the author or co-author of numerous books, magazines, and website columns, and is a television personality on the subject of sexuality. Schwartz is notable for her work in the 1970s and early 1980s that culminated in the book ''American Couples: Money-Work-Sex'', which was co-written with Philip Blumstein and surveyed

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

couples,

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

male couples and

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to ...

couples. Schwartz also serves as the Love & Relationship Expert & Ambassador for

AARP AARP (formerly called the American Association of Retired Persons) is an interest group in the United States focusing on issues affecting those over the age of fifty. The organization said it had more than 38 million members in 2018. The magazin ...

and writes the column The Naked Truth.'Ask Pepper Schwartz'
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Biography

Schwartz was born into a Jewish home. She earned a BA and an MA from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

and an MA and PhD in

Sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...

from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1974. While a graduate student there, she co-authored with Janet Lever the 1971 book ''Women at Yale,'' documenting the first year of

co-education Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

at that university. Schwartz wrote the column "Sex and Health" for ''

Glamour Glamour may refer to: Arts Film * ''Glamour'' (1931 film), a British film * ''Glamour'' (1934 film), an American film * ''Glamour'' (2000 film), a Hungarian film Writing * ''Glamour'' (magazine), a magazine for women * ''The Glamour ...

'' magazine for seven years. She has appeared on ''

The Oprah Winfrey Show ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', often referred to as ''The Oprah Show'' or simply ''Oprah'', is an American daytime broadcast syndication, syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicag ...

,'' ''

Dateline A dateline is a brief piece of text included in news articles that describes where and when the story was written or filed, though the date is often omitted. In the case of articles reprinted from wire services, the distributing organization is ...

,'' and ''

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

,'' as well as on programs for the

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

Lifetime Lifetime may refer to: * Life expectancy, the length of time a person is expected to remain alive Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Lifetime (band), a rock band from New Jersey * ''Life Time'' (Rollins Band album), by Rollins Band * ...

; she currently airs as one of the relationship experts on the reality television show “Married at First Sight.” She was the 2005 president of the Pacific Sociological Association, helped create the

dating web site Online dating, also known as Internet dating, Virtual dating, or Mobile app dating, is a relatively recent method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An onlin ...

Perfectmatch.com, and is a sexuality adviser for

WebMD WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites. It was foun ...

. Schwartz is a past president of the

Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS, or "quad-S") is a 501(c)3 non-profit professional membership organization "dedicated to advancing knowledge of sexuality and communicating scientifically based sexuality research and scholars ...

and a charter member of the

International Academy of Sex Research The International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) is a scientific society for researchers in sexology. According to John Bancroft, retired director of the Kinsey Institute, IASR "can claim...most of the field's leading researchers." IASR is uniq ...

. The

book jacket The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detachable outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book ...

for her 2007 publication ''Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years'' described her living "in Washington State, being single after a 23 year marriage, and having two children in college". Research by Schwartz and others surveying lesbian sexuality has generated debates because the surveys stated that lesbian couples in long-term relationships have less sex than their heterosexual or gay male counterparts. The phenomenon was labeled "

lesbian bed death Lesbian bed death is the concept that lesbian couples in committed relationships have less sex than any other type of couple the longer the relationship lasts, and generally experience less sexual intimacy as a consequence. It may also be defined ...

". One factor in this debate is the problem was how acts of "sex" was defined in surveys.

Bibliography

*''Sex and the Yale Student'', with Richard Feller, Elaine Fox, and Dr. Philip Sarrel Feller (The Committee on Human Sexuality, Yale University, 1970) *''The Student Guide to Sex on Campus'', by the Student Committee on Human Sexuality at Yale'', edited by Richard Feller, Elaine Fox, and Pepper Schwartz (

Signet Books The New American Library (also known as NAL) is an American publisher based in New York, founded in 1948. Its initial focus was affordable paperback reprints of classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction, but it now publishe ...

, 1971) *''Women at Yale: Liberating a College Campus'', with Janet Lever (

Bobbs-Merrill Company The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publisher located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Company history The company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1 ...

, 1971) *''American Couples'', with Philip Blumstein (William Morrow, 1983) **''American Couples: Money-Work-Sex'', with Philip Blumstein (

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...

, 1985) , *''Gender in Intimate Relationships: A Micro-Structural Approach'', with Barbara J. Risman (

Wadsworth Publishing Company Cengage Group is an American educational content, technology, and services company for the higher education, K-12, professional, and library markets. It operates in more than 20 countries around the world.(Jun 27, 2014Global Publishing Leaders 2 ...

, 1988) , *''Everything You Know About Love and Sex Is Wrong'' (

Perigee Trade Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initiall ...

, 1991 reissue) , *''Peer Marriage'' ( The Free Press, 1994) *''Love Between Equals: How Peer Marriage Really Works'' (Touchstone, 1995) , *''The Gender of Sexuality: Exploring Sexual Possibilities'' (The Gender Lens series), with Virginia Rutter (

AltaMira Press Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, 1998) , *''The Great Sex Weekend: A 48-hour Guide to Rekindling Sparks for Bold, Busy, or Bored Lovers'', with Janet Lever (Perigee Trade, 2000) , *''Ten Talks Parents Must Have with their Children About Sex and Character'', with

Dominic Cappello Dominic Cappello is a strategist, writer, designer, and educator. He is the creator of the Ten Talks book series published by Hyperion in 2000 and 2001. Ten Talks received national attention when Oprah Winfrey created a show around the book on sex ...

(

Hyperion Books Hyperion Books can refer to: * Hachette Books, book publishing division formerly known as Hyperion Books * Disney-Hyperion, an imprint that was retained by Disney Publishing Worldwide when its division, Hyperion Books, was sold to Hachette USA publi ...

, 2000) , *''201 Questions to Ask Your Kids: 201 Questions to Ask Your Parents'' (Collins, 2000) , *''The Lifetime Love and Sex Quiz Book'' (Hyperion Books, 2002) , * *''Prime: Advice and Adventures on Sex, Love and the Sensuous Years'' (

Collins Collins may refer to: People Surname Given name * Collins O. Bright (1917–?), Sierra Leonean diplomat * Collins Chabane (1960–2015), South African Minister of Public Service and Administration * Collins Cheboi (born 1987), Kenyan middle- ...

, 2007) . *''The Normal Bar: The Surprising Secrets of Happy Couples'', with Chrisanna Northrup and James Witte (Harmony, 2012) *''Dating After 50 for Dummies'' (John Wiley and sons, 2014) *''Snap Strategies for Couples: 45 fast fixes for everyday relationship pitfalls'', with Lana Staheli ( Seal Press, 2015ISBN 9781-58005-562-8 *''50 Great Myths of Human Sexuality with Martha Kempner'' (Wiley Blackwell, 2015) *''Frommers Places for Passion: the 75 most romantic destinations in the world-and why every couple needs to get away'', with Janet Lever ( AARP Media ,2015)

References

External links

Official website of Pepper Schwartz

Web page at the University of Washington
*

Pepper Schwartz' "Sex Matters" blog at MedHelp

TEDxRainier – Pepper Schwartz – The Next Sexual Revolution
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, Pepper American sexologists American sociologists American women sociologists Living people University of Washington faculty Yale University alumni 1945 births Jewish American social scientists People from Seattle 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women