we spoke to professorjane kamensky, who's director of the schlesinger library on the history of womenis someone you would have heard of if you were watching news in 1976. the hite report, published that year, was a publishing sensation. she claimed to have inaugurated a sexual revolution for women but in fact, she published into the middle of a sexual revolution, asking freud's familiar question about what do women want? i think for the first time at a mass scale, asking women themselves to respond to that question — and their answers were riveting and surprising, even if they weren't gathered in the best social scientific standards. so i think she had the attention of the world during the peak of herfame from the mid ‘70s to the early ‘80s. she had a lot of attention, but she also had a lot of criticism as well, didn't she? why was that? she was, in many ways, a qualitative researcher passing as a quantitative researcher. the survey was the instrument of choice for knowledge in her day, and she sent out 100,000 58—question surveys and got more than 3,500 responses back. and she tabul

professor jane kamensky is director of the schlesinger library on the history of women in america atvanced study. thank you so much forjoining us thank you so much forjoining us here on bbc news professor. mr by asking you, i have to admit, before i came into work today, i hadn't heard much about shere hite. the viewers watching this wondering who she was and why she was so important to the feminist movement, can you tell us? sure, shere hite was someone you would have heard of if you're watching news in 1976. the hite report published that year was a publishing sensation. she claimed to have inaugurated a sexual revolution for women but in fact she published in the middle of a sexual revolution asking for av sexual revolution asking for as familiar question about what do women want. i think for the first time in a mass scale, asking women themselves to respond to that question and their answers were riveting and exciting, surprising, even if they won't governing the best social or scientific standards. i think she had the attention of the world during the peak of herfame from of the