Rebecca Traister

Rebecca Traister (born 1975) is an American author and journalist. Traister is a writer-at-large for New York magazine and its website The Cut, and a contributing editor at Elle magazine.^[1] Traister wrote for The New Republic from February 2014 through June 2015.^[1][2]

Rebecca Traister
Traister at the JWA Making Trouble/Making History luncheon, 2012
Born	1975 (age 49–50)
Education	Northwestern University (BA)
Genre	Nonfiction
Notable works	Good and Mad Big Girls Don't Cry All the Single Ladies
Spouse	Darius Wadia ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	2

Early life and education

Born in 1975 to a Jewish father and Baptist mother, Traister was raised on a farm.^[3] She attended Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia and Northwestern University. After college, she moved to New York City.^[3]

Writing and awards

Traister's first book, the non-fiction Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women (2010), was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010,^[4] and the winner of the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2012.^[5]

Traister's second non-fiction book, All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation (2016),^[6] a New York Times best-seller, has been referred to as a followup to the first. Gillian Whitemarch of The New York Times described it as a "well-researched, deeply informative examination of women’s bids for independence, spanning centuries."^[7]

In 2018, Traister published another book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger.^[8]

Awards and recognition

Traister received a "Making Trouble / Making History Award" from the Jewish Women's Archive in 2012 at its annual luncheon. Longtime activist Gloria Steinem was the presenter.^[9][10]

In 2012, Traister received a Mirror Award for Best Commentary in Digital Media for two essays that appeared in Salon ("'30 Rock' Takes on Feminist Hypocrisy–and Its Own," and "Seeing 'Bridesmaids' is a Social Responsibility"), and one that was published in The New York Times ("The Soap Opera Is Dead! Long Live The Soap Opera!").^[11]

Personal life

In 2011, Traister married Darius Wadia, a public defender in Brooklyn. The couple lives in New York, with their two daughters.^[12][13][14]

Works

• Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women. Simon and Schuster. 14 September 2010. ISBN 978-1-4391-5487-8.
• All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. Simon & Schuster. 1 March 2016. ISBN 978-1-4767-1658-9.
• Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger. Simon & Schuster. 2018. ISBN 9781501181795.

References

1. Pompeo, Joe (June 9, 2015). "Rebecca Traister leaving T.N.R. for New York". Politico. Archived from the original on September 5, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
2. NR Staff (2016). "Rebecca Traister" (online article directory). The New Republic. No. June 18. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
3. Bronzite, Sarah (April 14, 2016). "Women no longer need to be married". The Jewish Chronicle. London.
4. 100 Notable Books of 2010. 24 November 2010. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
5. "WOMEN'S WAY Book Prize Honorees". WOMEN’S WAY. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
6. Traister, Rebecca (2016). All the single ladies: unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation (First Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-1656-5.
7. Whitemarch, Gillian B. (March 1, 2016). "'All the Single Ladies' [Subtitle: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation], by Rebecca Traister". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 March 2016. [H]ow do women view their own trajectory, and have society and cultural expectations caught up to what the statistics show is actually happening? Traister is certainly not the first writer to delve into these questions, but she skillfully advances the conversation with this book. A mix of interviews and historical analysis, "All the Single Ladies" is a well-researched, deeply informative examination of women's bids for independence, spanning centuries. The material can threaten to be overwhelming at times, but Traister provides a thoughtful culling of history to help bridge the gap between, on the one hand, glib depictions of single womanhood largely focused on sexual escapades and, on the other, grave warnings that female independence will unravel the very fabric of the country.
8. Tuttle, Kate (October 19, 2018). "A book for all the angry ladies". Los Angeles Times.
9. Goodman, Elyssa (March 21, 2012). "The Sisterhood: Seeing Beauty in 'Making Trouble'" (online blog). The Jewish Daily Forward. Retrieved April 16, 2012.
10. "Making Trouble / Making History | Jewish Women's Archive". Retrieved May 7, 2016.
11. Garcia, Carmen (June 18, 2012). "Traister wins Mirror Award". Salon. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
12. "New York Institute for the Humanities | Featured Fellow: Rebecca Traister". Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved March 18, 2016., New York institute for Humanities, December, 2011.
13. Hoder, Randye (March 11, 2015). "This little-seen MSNBC interview has big implications for working moms". Fortune. Retrieved June 3, 2017.
14. Heinis, John (December 1, 2011). "Judith Wadia, 73, of Weehawken, an artist and environmental activist". The Jersey Journal. New Jersey Online. Retrieved November 27, 2017.

Further reading

• "Rebecca Traister". Current Biography Yearbook. 79 (11): 79–84. 2018.

External links

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• "Rebecca Traister: Women's Rage is Transforming America." Ezra Klein Show. October 8, 2018.
• Ezra Klein interviews Rebecca Traister. The New York Times. March 19, 2021.
• Michael More interviews Rebecca Traister, Ep. 204: Rebecca Traister, Part 2 -- #MeToo, Harvey & Sexual Harassment In Our Left Media | Rumble