Peggy McIntosh Ph.D.

Peggy McIntosh is an educational innovator, race relations and feminist activist, author, and public speaker, best known for her seminal 1989 article, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” She derived her understanding of white privilege from observing parallels with male privilege, and her work has been instrumental in introducing the dimension of privilege, or unearned power, into discussions of gender, race, sexuality, and colonialism. Her own experiential examples of unearned power have inspired people around the world to explore the impact of privilege on themselves and on society.

McIntosh is also the founder of the National SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) Project on Inclusive Curriculum, the nation’s largest interdisciplinary program for peer-led professional development of educators. She has published more than 40 papers—on privilege, women’s studies, educational reform, and the connections between personal and systemic change. Sixteen of her most influential essays are collected in her book "On Privilege, Fraudulence, and Teaching As Learning."

McIntosh has given over 1,000 talks around the globe on curricular inclusion and on white privilege, including its worldwide effects on colonialism.

For over 58 years, McIntosh taught English, American Studies or Women’s Studies at the Brearley School, Harvard University, Trinity College (Washington, DC), Durham University, the University of Denver, and Wellesley College. In 2021, Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences awarded her its highest honor, the Centennial Medallion, for her “unflinching commitment to naming white privilege and confronting systemic forces of oppression.” She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2024.