User:Chris troutman/Karen Lindsey

Karen Lindsey is a feminist writer and historian.

Lindsey pioneered the concept of "consciously chosen family", describing the growing importance of interpersonal relationships between co-workers, friends, and other geographically-close personalities beyond one's blood kin. A self-described "spinster who lives with two cats," she explained that the concept for her 1981 book Friends as Family grew out of her nervous breakdown in 1977, the visits and support she received from friends and acquaintances in the aftermath, and the article she wrote about the experience for Ms. Magazine.

She is an adjunct professor at both UMass Boston and Emerson College Lindsey is one of the co-signers to Debra Dickerson's 2008 "An Open Letter from American Feminists" in Mother Jones.