After the Second World War, the family moved back to the United Kingdom, and Diana continued her education at Brighton and Hove High School and then at Girton College, Cambridge, where she read natural sciences; she developed an enthusiasm for anthropology during her degree but after graduating in 1961, trained and worked as a science teacher in Clapham (1964–67).
Her PhD was awarded in 1977 for her thesis "Sex and generation: a study of the process and ritual of courtship and wedding in a South Wales town".
She took part in a project under Christine Delphy in Paris (1975–77), which examined the ways that women were oppressed in the domestic sphere, a process that encouraged and helped to refine her materialist–feminist critique of the family.
Aside from a number of visiting professorships, Leonard remained at the Institute of Education for the rest of her career, which culminated in her appointment in 1998 as Professor of Sociology.
[1][2][3][4] Leonard, whose marriage to Rodney Barker ended in divorce in 1981 but produced three children, died of cancer on 27 November 2010.