Lynda Birke was born in London in 1948. She went to the University of Sussex, where she studied Biological Sciences. She subsequently did a master's by research (also at Sussex) in Animal Behaviour, before teaching science in London high schools for two years. She then returned to research and did a doctorate in animal behaviour, again at Sussex (1977). During that time, she was actively involved in the women's liberation movement, and cofounded the Brighton Women and Science Group. After that, she went to the Open University, where she was a Research Fellow in biology until 1987. She also worked on the University's Changing Experience of Women course. That was followed by a couple of years doing freelance science journalism and teaching. In 1990, she went to Warwick University, where she taught women's studies as well as courses in biology. She was Senior Lecturer in the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender when she left there in 1997. She is now based in the Institute for Women's Studies at the University of Lancaster.