Rita M. Gross

Who is Rita M. Gross?

Rita Gross is a Buddhist feminist theologian and author. Before retiring, she was Professor of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.

In 1974 Gross was named the head of Women and Religion, a newly created section of the American Academy of Religion. She earned her PhD in 1975 from the University of Chicago in History of Religions, with the dissertation "Exclusion and Participation: The Role of Women in Aboriginal Australian Religion." This was the first dissertation ever on women's studies in religion. In 1976 she published the article "Female God Language in a Jewish Context", which Jewish scholar and feminist Judith Plaskow considers "probably the first article to deal theoretically with the issue of female God-language in a Jewish context". Gross was Jewish herself at this time.

In 1977 Gross took refuge with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, becoming a Tibetan Buddhist. In 2005 she was made a lopön by Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, and she now teaches at Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche's Lotus Garden Center, located in the United States.