[1][2] Born in 1975 to a Jewish father and Baptist mother, Traister was raised on a farm.

[5] Traister's second non-fiction book, All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation (2016),[6] a New York Times best-seller, has been referred to as a followup to the first.

Gillian Whitemarch of The New York Times described it as a "well-researched, deeply informative examination of women’s bids for independence, spanning centuries.

"[7] In 2018, Traister published another book, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger.

[9][10] In 2012, Traister received a Mirror Award for Best Commentary in Digital Media for two essays that appeared in Salon ("'30 Rock' Takes on Feminist Hypocrisy–and Its Own," and "Seeing 'Bridesmaids' is a Social Responsibility"), and one that was published in The New York Times ("The Soap Opera Is Dead!