She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in U.S. history, specializing in women’s history and social history. Echols has received several rewards and grants, including the University of Michigan’s Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award in 1987. Her articles have appeared in the books Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality (edited by Carole Vance, 1984) and Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality (edited by Ann Snitow, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson, 1983), and in The Women’s Review of Books and Social Text.