Stern was educated at Kent College and read English literature at Bristol University where she graduated in 1963.

She was a visiting fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1984 to 1991, and was Secretary General of Penal Reform International from 1989 until 2006.

She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1992 New Year Honours[1] and was created a Life Peer as Baroness Stern, of Vauxhall in the London Borough of Lambeth on 13 July 1999.

In 2010, Baroness Stern carried out a review on how public authorities in England and Wales handled complaints of rape and sexual violence.

[6][7] In 2021, she took part in a panel held by the Home Affairs Committee to look at how findings in the review had led to changes in how cases are handled.