In 1974 Gross was named the head of Women and Religion, a newly created section of the
American Academy of Religion.[6] She earned her PhD in 1975 from the
University of Chicago in History of Religions, with the dissertation "Exclusion and Participation: The Role of Women in Aboriginal Australian Religion."[7][8] This was the first dissertation ever on women's studies in religion.[6] In 1976 she published the article "Female God Language in a Jewish Context" (Davka Magazine 17), which Jewish scholar and feminist
Judith Plaskow considers "probably the first article to deal theoretically with the issue of female God-language in a Jewish context".[9][10] Gross was herself born Lutheran before converting to Judaism in her twenties.[11]
In 1977 Gross took refuge with
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, becoming a Tibetan Buddhist.[12][13] In 2005 she was made a lopön (Tibetan (
Wylie): slob dpon; Sanskrit (
IAST): ācārya, "senior teacher") by Jetsün
Khandro Rinpoche, and taught at Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche's Lotus Garden Center, located in the United States.[4][14]
Buddhism beyond Gender: Liberation from Attachment to Identity, Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications, 2018.
Religious Diversity: What's the Problem? Buddhist Advice for Flourishing with Religious Diversity, Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.
A Garland of Feminist Reflections: Forty Years of Religious Reflection, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2009.
Religious Feminism and the Future of the Planet: A Buddhist-Christian-Feminist Conversation (with Rosemary Radford Ruether), New York: Continuum, 2001.
Soaring and Settling: Buddhist Perspectives on Contemporary Social and Religious Issues, New York: Continuum, 1998.
Feminism and Religion: An Introduction; Boston: Beacon Press, 1996; Korean translation, 1999; Chapter One “Defining Feminism, Religion, and the Study of Religion” reprinted in Theory and Method in the Study of Religion, ed. by Carl Olson (Belmont, CA:Wadsworth, 2004), pp. 511–20
Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism; Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993; Spanish translation, Editorial Trotta, Madrid, Spain, 2005.[17]
Books edited by Gross
Editor (with Terry Muck): Christians Talk About Buddhist Meditation: Buddhists Talk About Christian Prayer; New York: Continuum, 2003.
Editor (with Terry Muck): Buddhists Talk About Jesus: Christians Talk About the Buddha; New York: Continuum, 2000.
Editor (with Nancy A. Falk): Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives; Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Press, 1989; Third Edition, Wadsworth Press, 2001; Translated into French as La Religion Par Les Femmes, Edition Labor et Fides, 1993.
Editor (with Nancy A. Falk): Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in Non-Western Cultures; San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1980;
Editor: Beyond Androcentrism: New Essays on Women and Religion; Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1977[17]
^
abPeter A. Huff, ed. (Spring 2011).
"News of the Society". Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Newsletter. 47. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
^Gross, Rita M. (2009). A garland of feminist reflections : forty years of religious exploration. Berkeley: University of California Press.
ISBN978-0-520-25585-2.
^
abLowe, Barbara J. (22 September 2006). Feminists who changed America, 1963-1975. University of Illinois Press. p. 526.
^Rita M. Gross (1975). Exclusion and participation : the role of women in aboriginal Australian religion. University of Chicago.
OCLC1723873.