DuBois became interested in history while in her senior year of high school.[1] She earned a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1968 and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1975.[1] DuBois became interested in the women's liberation movement while she was a graduate student and started working with the Chicago Women's Liberation Union.[2][3] Her interest in the movement led to her becoming "one of the early pioneers of women's history," according to People's World.[2] Her work focused on the importance of formal politics and women's history.[4]
"Working Women, Class Relations and Suffrage Militance: Harriot Stanton Blatch and the New York Woman Suffrage Movement, 1894-1910", Journal of American History, June 1987
Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America 1848-1869[7] (1978)
Through Women's Eyes: An American History with Documents (with Lynn Dumenil)[8] (2005)