Pepper Schwartz

Pepper Schwartz (born May 11, 1945) is an American sexologist and sociologist teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, United States. She is the author or co-author of numerous books, magazines, and website columns, and is a television personality on the subject of sexuality.

Schwartz is notable for her work in the 1970s and early 1980s that culminated in the book American Couples: Money-Work-Sex, which was co-written with Philip Blumstein and surveyed lesbian couples, gay male couples and heterosexual couples.

Schwartz also serves as the Love & Relationship Expert & Ambassador for AARP and writes the column The Naked Truth. Schwartz was born into a Jewish home. She earned a BA and an MA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MA and PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 1974. While a graduate student there, she co-authored with Janet Lever the 1971 book Women at Yale, documenting the first year of co-education at that university.

Schwartz wrote the column "Sex and Health" for Glamour magazine for seven years. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dateline, and Dr. Phil, as well as on programs for the cable television network Lifetime; she currently airs as one of the relationship experts on the reality television show “Married at First Sight.” She was the 2005 president of the Pacific Sociological Association, helped create the dating web site Perfectmatch.com, and is a sexuality adviser for WebMD.

Schwartz is a past president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and a charter member of the International Academy of Sex Research. The book jacket for her 2007 publication Prime: Adventures and Advice on Sex, Love, and the Sensual Years described her living "in Washington State, being single after a 23 year marriage, and having two children in college".

Research by Schwartz and others surveying lesbian sexuality has generated debates because the surveys stated that lesbian couples in long-term relationships have less sex than their heterosexual or gay male counterparts. The phenomenon was labeled "lesbian bed death". One factor in this debate is the problem was how acts of "sex" was defined in surveys.