Dr. Janet Hyde is a distinguished Psychologist and pioneering scholar in gender studies whose work has fundamentally reshaped understanding of psychological gender differences. She holds the Helen Thompson Woolley Professor Emerit position in Psychology and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she previously served as Director of the Center for Research on Gender and Women. Dr. Hyde received her BA in mathematics from Oberlin College in 1969 and completed her PhD in psychology at the University of California Berkeley in 1972, establishing an academic foundation that would support her groundbreaking interdisciplinary career. Before joining the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty in 1986, she built her scholarly reputation through faculty positions at Bowling Green State University and Denison University where she began her influential research on gender and psychology.
Dr. Hyde's most significant contribution to science is her development of the Gender Similarities Hypothesis which she articulated in a highly influential 2005 American Psychologist article that reviewed 46 meta-analyses on psychological gender differences. Her rigorous meta-analytic approach demonstrated that men and women are far more psychologically similar than different across most variables challenging popular misconceptions perpetuated by books like Men Are from Mars Women Are from Venus. This paradigm-shifting work has received thousands of citations and fundamentally altered how psychologists approach gender research moving the field away from essentialist views toward more nuanced understanding of gender similarities. Her textbook Half the Human Experience The Psychology of Women has educated generations of students and established itself as a foundational resource in the field.
Beyond her research contributions Dr. Hyde has profoundly shaped the discipline through her leadership roles including founding the APA journal Emotion and serving as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has received numerous prestigious awards including the Ernest R. Hilgard Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Psychological Association in 2016 and the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award in 2018 recognizing her enduring impact on psychological science. In recent years Dr. Hyde has expanded her research focus to examine the psychology of gun violence authoring a book that applies psychological principles to this critical societal issue. Her ongoing work continues to bridge academic research with real world applications demonstrating her commitment to using psychological science to address pressing social challenges and advance gender equity.
