Pepper Schwartz

Celebrated sociologist Dr. Pepper Schwartz dispensed advice on love and sexuality through numerous books and publications, as well as a panelist and expert for such series as "Married at First Sight" (A&E, 2014- ). Born May 11, 1945 in Chicago, Illinois, she gravitated towards athletics and acting in her school years, but her interest in healthy human sexuality was also fomented at an early age during this period, beginning at the age of ten, when she conducted a parent-approved sex education class in her family's home. Schwartz continued to focus on relationships, love and sex during her college years at Washington University, from which she earned her bachelor's degree in 1967 and a master's degree in 1968; further studies at Yale, where she earned a second master's degree in philosophy and her Ph.D in sociology in 1973, coincided with the publication of her first book, Sex and the Yale Student, co-authored by Dr. Philip Sarrel Feller, in 1970. It was soon followed by two other studies on sex and gender, including Women at Yale (1971), which examined the school's first year of co-education. The following year, Schwartz began her long tenure as a professor of sociology at the University of Washington; she also began serving as chairperson or council member for several notable organizations, including the National Women's Resource Center and American Sociological Association in 1975. Her decades of work on sexuality culminated in the publication of American Couples, co-written by Philip Blumstein, in 1983; the book, which surveyed heterosexual and gay couples on issues of sex, finance and relationships, drew critical praise as well as controversy over findings which suggested that lesbian couples in long-term relationships experienced a diminishing sex life, which gave rise to the term "lesbian bed death." The attention afforded the book led to regular writing assignments for numerous publications, most notably AARP, for which she serves as its Love & Relationship Expert & Ambassador; she also appeared on numerous national television talk shows and was a member of the news staff of KIRO in Seattle for more than a decade. In 2003, Schwartz began contributing to television documentary and reality series, lending her expertise on love and sex to such programs as "Another Chance for Love" (syndicated, 2008) and the "Married at First Sight," franchise on A&E. She remained a mainstay of the series, which asked couples to marry a total stranger picked for them by Schwartz and two other experts, and contend with all the difficulties inherent to such a proposition.