About me

Lisa Sherper worked as a therapist in the Washington D.C. area with a diverse client base for sixteen years. Her work as a couple therapist disrupting the unequal flow of power in relationships was both gratifying and frustrating She wrote Gender Traps to support more rapid change toward equal partnerships in heterosexual relationships. She was in a unique position to write this book as a seasoned therapist with a background in feminist theory. She graduated in 1988 from Rutgers college with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a minor in women’s studies. In 1993, she obtained a master’s degree in political philosophy from the University of Glasgow and wrote her thesis on ecofeminism. After handing in her thesis, and discovering she was pregnant, she moved to the United Arab Emirates and landed a job teaching political science at a local university. 

Upon returning to the US with a young child, she like many women juggled part-time work with parenting to avoid expensive childcare costs. She has experienced the realities of the DIY society, divorce, and single motherhood. The common thread in her work as a therapist working to improve relationship health and increase mutuality was that heterosexual relationships were chronically imbalanced. Informed by feminist theory, she began to see a pattern in relationships of a mis-entitled (my term) couple where the woman was disproportionately responsible for the relationship and family. She wrote this book to elevate the issue out of the therapy room and into public discourse.

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