Carol Chomsky

Carol Chomsky (July 1, 1930 – December 19, 2008) was an American linguist and education specialist who studied language acquisition in children.

Chomsky was born in Philadelphia as Carol Doris Schatz on July 1, 1930. She married Noam Chomsky in 1949, the two having known each other since she was five years old. Her mother had been a teacher at a Hebrew school where his father was the principal. She was awarded a bachelor's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951.

The couple spent some time living in HaZore'a, a kibbutz in Israel. Despite her interest in becoming a mechanic or driving a tractor, at the time of the Chomskys' stay in 1953 "the kibbutz wasn't quite ready for that. It was way before there were even words about women's rights" according to Judith Chomsky, wife of Noam Chomsky's younger brother.

She earned a doctoral degree in linguistics from Harvard University in 1968, having attended the school in order to ensure that she would be able to make a living in the event that her husband would be sent to jail for his active opposition to the Vietnam War.