Biography
Hartmann was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the child of German immigrants who divorced due to financial challenges when she was young. Her mother struggled in low-paying jobs to take care of both Hartmann and her brother, experiences that piqued Hartmann's interest in economics
After highschool she pursued a Bachelor's in economics at Swarthmore College where she graduated with honors in 1967, went on to get a Masters in Philosophy in economics in 1972 and a PhD in 1974 at Yale University. Her PhD thesis topic, considered unconventional at the time, was: 'Capitalism and women's work in the home, 1900-1930'. During her time at Yale she started organizing with her peers and standing up against injustices, believing in the power of collective action in the path towards change.
After graduating, she taught for a couple of years before moving to Washington where she worked for the U.S.Commission on Civil rights.
She then worked for the National Academy of Sciences where pioneering analysis on the gender wage gap was being done and stayed there gathering experience in writing proposals and in developing research for public policy.
In 1987 she founded the Institute for Women's policy research (IWPR) which at its inception faced many challenges in credibility, but is today one of the largest, longest-running, women-focused, policy-oriented non-profits in the United States.
In 1994, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship Award for her work in the field of women and economics, and, in 1995, she received an honorary Doctor of Law degree from Swarthmore College, her alma mater.
Even after her official retirement in 2019, she's still president emerita and senior research economist of the IWPR, and currently serves as a distinguished economist and resident at the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics at American University.
