Elizabeth Secor Anderson (born December 5, 1959) is an American philosopher at the University of Michigan specializing in social and political philosophy, ethics, feminist philosophy, and political economy.

Anderson was born December 5, 1959 to Evelyn Anderson (née Gordon), a freelance journalist, and Olof Anderson, an aeronautical engineer at United Technologies. Her mother was Jewish and her father was raised Swedish Lutheran. Anderson has one brother, Andrew Anderson. She was born premature and underweight, and she remained smaller than her peers throughout childhood. Anderson had a lisp as a child.

Anderson was raised in Manchester, Connecticut. She described her parents as active in their local community and social during her childhood. They helped found a Unitarian Universalist worship space and participated in Democratic politics, with her father being elected to the Manchester city council as a Democrat in 1963. While he was in office, Anderson's parents helped found the Manchester Community College. In contrast, Anderson often felt awkward and anxious growing up. This discomfort in part led her to reading. “Books were secure—this was something I could master and control," she said of her childhood. Anderson became interested in philosophy in high school after her father introduced her to On Liberty by John Stuart Mill and Plato's Republic, but she anticipated studying math and economics. Anderson graduated from Manchester High School in 1977.

Anderson received a B.A. with high honors in philosophy with a minor in economics from Swarthmore College in 1981. She began her undergraduate studies as a "really confirmed capitalist libertarian." She was primarily interested in economics but found that it was "making all kinds of assumptions with moral content, but which it wasn't really able to justify or understand," leading her to study philosophy instead.

In 1979, while on summer break from Swarthmore, Anderson worked as a bookkeeper at a bank in Harvard Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Her experiences working at the bank led her to reflect on inequality, freedom, and the nature of work—all of which later became subjects of her academic writing.

Anderson's first academic article, criticizing relational theories of space in ontology, was published in 1980 while she was still an undergraduate student at Swarthmore. She was the second author alongside Hugh M. Lacey, a professor of philosophy.

In 1987, Anderson completed a Ph.D. in Philosophy at Harvard University. Her studies focused on political and moral philosophy under the mentorship of John Rawls. Martha Nussbaum was one of her instructors.

From 1985 to 1986, Anderson was a visiting instructor of philosophy at Swarthmore College, and in 1987 she was hired as an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan. She was Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies from 1993 to 1999 and was promoted to full professorship in 1999. In 1994, she was named an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in recognition of her "outstanding contributions to undergraduate education." From 2005 to 2013, she was the John Rawls Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies. In 2011, Anderson helped found and served as the director of the University of Michigan's Philosophy, Politics, and Economics undergraduate program. In 2013, she was elevated to the University of Michigan's highest professorship and selected John Dewey as her chair, making her the John Dewey Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies. From 2021 to 2025, Anderson was the Max Shaye Professor of Public Philosophy. She has been a Professor of Law by courtesy since 2024.