She received her PhD from Royal Holloway, London, supervised by Lyndal Roper, where she was subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow.
She lectured at the Universities of Hertfordshire and Essex before King’s, and is one of the editors of History Workshop Journal.
[2] Gowing's research relates to early modern England, women, gender, the body, sexuality, crime, and London.
Much of her work uses legal records as a source for the history of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century women, with a particular focus on language and the body.
Her first book Domestic Dangers revealed high numbers of London women litigating and testifying about sex and marriage, arguing for a 'language of insult' that defined women through sexual reputation.