[1] She was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, then her family settled in Australia in 1960.
[2] Since 2015 she has been the Head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney.
[3] She has written extensively on British and Australian women's history, and has written biographies of a number of historical figures, including the Strachey family and the Webb family.
Caine researches and writes in the fields of nineteenth-century studies,[4] women's history and biography and life-writing.
In 2014, Caine became a member of the Order of Australia "for significant service to tertiary education, particularly gender studies, and as a role model and mentor".