[1] Hartsock was born in 1943 in a Methodist lower-middle class family, in Ogden, Utah.

[2] After this march, she then helped start a graduate student woman's caucus in Political Science.

She was a practiced musician and prior to her dissertation, Hartsock built and played the harpsichord.

After a 3 year period, she moved to Washington, D.C., and took a course at Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) on feminist theory in 1973.

Several years after, she moved to the University of Washington and learned that the Woman's Studies at Johns Hopkins was now a course.

[1] She served as President of the Western Political Science Association (1994–95), and was the Co-founder of the Center for Women & Democracy in Seattle, WA, Founding Director (1999-2000).