[2] Her work examines the role and life of American women, with the assistance of primary sources, oral history and written biographies.

[8] Kerrison's book, Claiming the Pen (2006),[9] looks at how Anglo-American women in the American South contributed to literature and print in the 18th century.

[10][11] In the book, Kerrison demonstrates the types of hierarchies that women in the southern United States faced, including race, class and gender.

[12] Kerrison used oral history and other forms of literature and writing to examine the intellectual lives of Southern women.

Although she has welcomed the increased prominence of women in a variety of industries in the last 30 years, she believes "beauty is being constituted primarily as female", and it is still important for any woman in the public eye.