Susan Drysdale received her degrees from Northland College (BA, 1958), and Louisiana State University (MA, 1961, and PhD, 1969). She was a professor of sociology at Concordia University and at one of the two founding institutions, Loyola College. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Loyola Faculty of Arts and Science in 1971. In 1975, she was promoted Associate Professor and became vice-chair of the Department of Sociology in 1975-1976. She was chair of the Concordia Department of Sociology and Anthropology from 1994 to 1996.

Professor Drysdale has been a Fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir Institute since 1980, and she was made Honorary Fellow in 1997. She participated actively in several areas of the Institute. Her areas of teaching and research include classical social theory, Victorian sociology, gender, and women and work. As co-researcher, she participated in three oral history projects on women: “Women and Work” (1982), with Professor Katherine Waters “Women and War Work in Montreal” (1984), and “Oral History of Women Academics at Concordia” (1992).

She served on a number of committees such as the Board of Governors, the Arts and Science Faculty Council, CUFA (Concordia University Faculty Association), the Advisory Committee on Equity, the Joint Grievance Committee, the Appeals Board and the Senate Library Committee. She retired in 1997.