[2] She graduated from North Chicago Community High School in 1961.
Listed as Mari Jo Kupski Buhle in 1968, she received her Master of Arts degree in history from the University of Connecticut.
She taught mainly on the history of American women, training students at the undergraduate and graduate levels in both the American Civilization and History departments.
Buhle's own research began with a specialty in the history of American radicalism and expanded to include the history of the behavior sciences in the United States.
Buhle has received fellowships from the Center for Research on Women at Wellesley College; the Bunting Institute (now the Radcliffe Institute) at Harvard University; and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1991–1996).