Kay Elizabeth Bass Saunders AO was born in Brisbane on 19 August 1947. She attended the University of Queensland where she received a Bachelor of Arts in 1970 and a PhD in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology in 1975. Throughout her academic career she worked at the University of Queensland. She was appointed Emeritus Professor, following her retirement in 2006. She is a distinguished national and international scholar in the areas of race and gender relations, cultural history, World War 2 and national security. Professor Saunders is the author of numerous books and articles, including Alien Justice: Internment in Twentieth Century North America and Australia and War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland 1938-1948, and co-author of Exclusion, Exploitation and Extermination: Race Relations in Colonial Queensland. For a period, she was married to Raymond Evans and went by the name Kay Elizabeth Evans. Together, they had a daughter.

In 1999, she was appointed a member of the Order of Australia, and promoted to Officer in the 2021 Australia Day Honours. In 2001 she was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She is also Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (London) and of the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). After leaving the University of Queensland Professor Saunders was appointed Executive Director of the Brisbane Institute.