Mirra Komarovsky

Who was Mirra Komarovsky?

Mirra Komarovsky, was a Russian-born American pioneer in the sociology of gender.

Coming from a privileged Jewish family in Tsarist Russia, her family fled the country after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Komarovsky’s parents were Zionists and landowning Jews in Akkerman, Russia, until tsarist police drove them from their home. They moved initially to Baku and then to Wichita, Kansas after the Bolshevik Revolution, when Mirra was 16. In Baku, Komarovsky lived a solidly middle-class lifestyle; she was homeschooled by private tutors and learned Russian, English, Hebrew, and French, as well as playing the piano.

Once in the United States, she graduated from Wichita High School within a year and was admitted to Barnard’s Class of 1926. Her advisor in college advised her not to pursue higher education, largely because of the prescribed gender roles at the time. Nonetheless, she earned her Master's Degree from Columbia University and proceeded to earn her Ph.D.