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Professor Rhonda Sharp
Position: Adjunct Professor - Hawke Institute Professor Rhonda Sharp
Division/Portfolio: Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences
School/Unit: Hawke Research Institute
Campus: Magill Campus
Office:
Telephone: +61 8 830 21938
Fax: +61 8 830 22973
Email: rhonda_dot_sharp_at_unisa_dot_edu_dot_au
URL for Business Card: http://people.unisa.edu.au/rhonda.sharp

Welcome to my home page. My current position is Professor of Economics at the Hawke Research Institute for Sustainable Societies. I am also a member, and a past Director, of the Research Centre for Gender Studies which is key concentration in the Hawke Research Institute.

My research and scholarship have straddled the interrelated areas of economics, political economy, gender studies and public policy. I have undertaken research and policy work on gender and economic issues with governments and community groups in Australia, United Kingdom, Norway, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Italy, the Basque Country, Sweden, Barbados, Samoa and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. I have been commissioned for research and consultancy by international agencies including the Commonwealth Secretariat, the United Nations Development Programme, UNIFEM, Asian Development Bank, Swedish International Development Agency and AusAid. My scholarship on gender and economic issues has led to invitations to present papers to international and national academic and community audiences.

Since 1993 I have been part of a core group of international academics and policymakers engaged in developing a feminist economics perspective both within and outside the mainstream (neoclassical) discipline of economics. I have served on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) for several years and on the advisory board of the journal Feminist Economics (voted best new journal by the USA journal editors in 1999). In 2000 I was elected President of IAFFE and was academic program director of IAFFE’s annual conference at Bogazici University, Istanbul Turkey in that year.

In 2003 I was awarded the Centenary Federation Medal by the Australian government for services to education and society.


Research Centre for Gender Studies

Hawke Research Institute

Teaching interests

  • Currently my teaching is at the postgraduate level. However, previously I have taught the following courses:
  • Globalisation and national policies
  • Economics and public policy
  • Public sector economics
  • Development economics
  • Politics, power and interest groups

Professional associations

International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE). Elected President 2000 and member of the Board of Directors IAFFE 1995-2001, Australian Coordinator of the Australian and New Zealand chapter of IAFFE

Australian Institute of Public Administration

Economics Society of Australia

top Appointments to boards committees and task forces

2004-1997 Member, National Editorial Advisory Committee, Australian Feminist Studies

2004-2002 Member, Advisory Committee of the 2003 and 2005 Adelaide Festival of Ideas

2004-2003 Member, Advisory Committee of the Economic Growth Summit South Australian Government

2001-1999 Member, Editorial Board, Feminist Economics

1999 Member of the international expert panel on budget analyses and gender for Emakunde's Basque Autonomous Country Government’s Spanish and English virtual library on the topic

1994-1989 Member, Board of the SA State Transport Authority (appointed by the Governor of South Australia, Dame Roma Mitchell)

1995-1994 Acting Chairperson, SA State Transport Authority Board

1989-1986 Deputy chairperson and member, Social Justice Advisory committee (appointed by the South Australian Minister for Health and Social Services)

1989-1987 Member, Task Force on Public Sector Superannuation SA (appointed by the Premier of South Australia)

1994 Chair, State Transport Authority Research Scholarship Awarding Committee for the celebration of a Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in South Australia

1994 Chairperson, Audit Committee, State Transport Authority, South Australia

1993-1992 Member, Audit Committee, State Transport Authority, South Australia

1992 Member, Review of the Equal Opportunity Program, Women’s Adviser’s Office, Department of the Premier and Cabinet South Australia

1991-86 Member, Economics Committee, United Trades and Labour Council South Australia

Qualifications

PhD (University of Sydney)

M Ec St (University of Queensland)

Dip. Ed (University of New England)

B.Ec (Hons) (University New England)

Research publications

Selected publications

Budgeting for Equity: Gender Responsive Budgeting within a Framework of Performance Oriented Budgeting, (2003) UNIFEM: New York.
Click here to download publication

‘Moving forward: multiple strategies and guiding goals’ (2003) in Judd, K editor, Gender Budget Initiatives: Strategies, Concepts and Experiences, UNIFEM: New York.

‘Gender Budgets’ (2003) in Argyous, G and Stilwell, F, editors, Economics as a Social Science, second edition, Pluto Press : Sydney

‘Budgeting for equality: the Australian experience’ (2002 with Ray Broomhill). Feminist Economics, Vol. 8(1): 25–47.

‘The economics and politics of gender-sensitive budget analyses’ (2001). Investigacion Economica, March. (published in Spanish).

Gender patterns of access and participation in double degrees (2001 with C Batson, E Ramsay, A Mackinnon). Canberra: Department of Employment, Training and Youth.

‘Women’s budgets’ (1999) in The Elgar campanion for feminist economics, edited by Lewis, Meg and Peterson, Janice., Edward Elgar: NY.

‘Restructuring our lives: engendering debates about social and economic policies in South Australia’ (1999 with Ray Broomhill) in Spoehr, John, editor, Beyond the contract state: policies for social and economic renewal in South Australia. Adelaide: Wakefield Press, pp 132-155.

Short Changed: Women and Economic Policies (with Ray Broomhill) Sydney, Allen and Unwin

top Research interests

Three strands of research have been the focus of my work. These are gender and government budgets, gender, restructuring and globalisation and women and economic policies.

Gender and government budgets

I have undertaken research, policy work and consultancies on the topic of gender responsive budgets since 1985. Australia was a world pioneer in seeking to develop methodologies and processes for ‘mainstreaming’ gender in government budgets. Following the world’s first pilot women’s budget initiative by the Australian Federal government in 1983-84 I was seconded to the South Australian Department of the Premier and the Cabinet 1985-1986 to develop a gender sensitive budget initiative at a State government level. My co-authored publications analysing the Australian gender budget initiatives are:

  • ‘Women and Government Budgets’ (with Ray Broomhill). Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol 25, No 1, pp 1-14, 1990

  • Budgeting for equality: the Australian experience’ (with Ray Broomhill) Feminist Economics. Vol. 8(1): 25-47, 2002.

  • The Australian women’s budget experience informed the ‘inside government’ gender responsive pilot’s of the Commonwealth Secretariat. The booklet I developed with South African researcher Debbie Budlender outlined the research and practice of these gender responsive budgets by the late 1990s.

  • ‘How to do a Gender-Sensitive Budget Analysis: Contemporary Research and Practice’, with Debbie Budlender (1998). Commonwealth Secretariat and AusAid, London and Canberra. (Translated into Spanish by UNIFEM 2000)

Other publications on gender budget initiatives include:

  • ‘The economics and politics of gender sensitive budget analyses’ (2001) Investigacion Economica, March. (published in Spanish). Working Paper available in English

  • Women’s budgets’ (1999) The Elgar Campanion for Feminist Economics, edited by Lewis, Meg and Peterson, Janice, Edward Elgar: NY.

During 2002-2003 I was team leader of the pilot project Integrating Gender and Youth into Public Expenditure Management in the Pacific, funded by the Asian Development Bank and coordinated by Dr Maryse Dugue. This project piloted a youth sensitive budget in Samoa and a gender sensitive budget in the Republic of the Marshall Islands for one budget cycle. Selected materials from the project are available from the Pacific Project Web site

A paper on the youth responsive budget in Samoa is forthcoming and the Hawke Research Institute website will has a working paper of the gender budget initiative in the RMI in early 2004.

In 2003 the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) commissioned me to research performance based budgeting as a framework for gender responsive budgets. This publication outlines three methodologies for gender responsive budgets proceeding within a framework of performance oriented budgeting systems and is available on

Over the past decade I have provided consultancies, briefings, invited conference and seminar presentations on gender responsive budgets to governments, international organizations and community groups. Recent examples include:

  • South Korean government gender responsive budget study tour of senior government officials to the Philippines and Australia, briefing on gender responsive budget approaches, Adelaide, December 19, 2003.

  • Norwegian Overseas Research and Development Department (NORAD) briefing on international developments in gender responsive budgeting, Oslo Norway, October 3, 2003

  • Norwegian Department of Family and Children seminar presentation ‘Conceptual frameworks and lessons in gender responsive budgeting’, for the participating department and ministries of the Norwegian gender responsive budget initiative, Oslo, Norway, October 3, 2003

  • United Kingdom, HM Treasury and the Women’s Budget Pilot Management Group ‘Performance oriented budgeting; A framework for gender responsive budgets?’, seminar, HM Treasury London, UK October 9, 2003.

  • Republic of the Marshall Islands Chamber of Commerce, ‘Gender responsive budgeting’ presentation, November 7, 2002.

  • United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women ‘Strategies and goals of gender responsive budgets’, video paper at the Pre- conference for Financing for Development session held in NY, USA, January 5-8, 2002.

  • Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ‘Gender responsive budgets’ video paper at the Pacific Regional Symposium on Gender Mainstreaming, Bangkok, Thailand, November 26-29, 2002

  • Office of the Status of Women, Government of South Australia, briefing on international developments in gender responsive budgeting, Adelaide, April 6, 2001.

  • Sixth Women in Asia Conference ‘Gender responsive budgets’, invited paper, Australian National University, Canberra, September 23-26, 2001.

  • UNIFEM-OECD-Nordic Council of Ministers-Government of Belgium Invited conference presentation ‘Multiple Strategies and Guiding Goals of Gender Responsive Budgets’, (given as video paper) at the Towards gender Responsive Budgeting conference hosted by the Belgian Government to launch ‘A global Vision to Strengthen Economic and Financial Governance’, Brussels, October 16-17, 2001.

  • Basque Country government, 'Institutions, tools and frameworks for undertaking a gender sensitive budget analysis' briefing to the President, Economics Minister and Agency CEOs of the Basque Autonomous Country Government, Victoria, Spain, September 13, 2000.

  • Commonwealth Secretariat, Consultant, The Development of a Gender Budget Initiative: A Commonwealth Initiative to Integrate Gender into National Budgetary, South Africa 1997; Sri Lanka 1998; Barbados 1998; Fiji 2000; Inter-Agency planning workshops on gender budget initiatives UK 1998, OECD Paris 2000.

  • Office of Status of Women and the Minister, Tasmanian government, seminar presentation, ‘International developments in gender sensitive budgets and the lessons for the Tasmanian initiative’, April, 2000.

  • South Pacific Forum Secretariat keynote paper, 'Integrating gender into macroeconomic policy', Round table on Gender and Economic Reform in the Pacific, Nadi, Fiji, March 1-2, 2000.

  • University of Rome (Economics Department) and the University of Sienna in collaboration with the Italian Government's Equal Opportunities Commission, Invited presentation, 'Gender Budgets: The Australian Experience' to the Gender Auditing Conference Rome, September 17-21, 2000.

  • Consultant to United Nations Development Programme Pro-Poor, Gender and Environment Sensitive Budgets Workshop, June 28-30, 1999 New York, USA.

  • Consultant to the Swedish Institute for Development Aid (SIDA) Gender and the Macroeconomy Workshops, December 14-21, 1997, Stockholm, Sweden.

Gender and economic restructuring

My current research on gender and economic restructuring comprises two Australian Research Council funded projects and participation in an international collaborative project involving scholars from Australia, Canada, Mexico and Norway.

The project Engendering Restructuring is undertaken jointly with Dr Ray Broomhill, (Centre for Labour Research, Adelaide University). It explores the uneven gendered impact of the restructuring process - linking its economic and social dimensions. The study combines quantitative and qualitative research methods to examine (1) the uneven changes over time in the labour market patterns for men and women in different localities and socio-economic groupings and (2) the diverse changes occurring in gender relations and life experiences within households undergoing restructuring changes. It is planned that this project will be extended to include comparative research on Australia and Canada.

A new project, Engineering Diversity: An Investigation of Gender, Workplace Culture and Change funded by the Australian Research Council commences in 2004. This collaboration with University of South Australia colleagues Suzanne Franzway, Judy Gill and Julie Mills builds on a pilot research project undertaken in 2002-03 that involved 50 interviews with women and men engineers about their working lives.

Women and economic policies

An enduring strand of my research has been on the topic of women and economic policies. My co-authored book Short Changed: Women and Economic Policies (Allen and Unwin), published in 1989 analysed how mainstream economic ideas and theory shaped public policy outcomes for women. A key area of policy research that I have undertaken has been in the area of women and superannuation. This was the focus of my doctoral thesis: Labor’s occupational superannuation policy reforms and their implications for women: A feminist economic critique (Sydney University).

top Research grants

Australian Research Council Grants

2004-2006 Joint Principal Researcher with Suzanne Franzway, Judy Gill and Julie Mills Engineering Diversity: An Investigation of Gender, Workplace Culture and Change, Discovery Australian Research Council Grant.

2000-2002 Joint Principal Researcher with Ray Broomhill, Adelaide University, Engendering Restructuring Large Australian Research Council Grant.

1998-2000 Joint Principal Researcher (with Suzanne Franzway), Access and Equity in Women's Participation in Vocational Education and Training, Australian Research Council SPIRT (APAI) Grant and industry contribution.

1999-2001 Joint Principal Researcher with Cathy Speck and Ian North, Samstag Legacy, Australian Research Council SPIRT (APAI) Grant, and industry contribution.

Other research grants

2002-2003 Gender and Youth Sensitive Public Expenditure Management in the Pacific, research contracted by the Asian Development Bank.

2003 The political economy youth and youth sensitive budgeting in Samoa, Business and Enterprise Divisional Grant

2002 Performance oriented budgeting as a framework for gender responsive budgets Contracted research by the United Nations Investment Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

2002 Engineering Women, University of South Australia Collaborative Grant and Australian Institute of Engineers Grant, with Judy Gill, Suzanne Franzway and Julie Mills, (University of South Australia.

2000-2001 Patterns of Gender Participation and Equity in Double Degrees, Department of Education EIP Grant, with Alison Mackinnon (University of South Australia) and Eleanor Ramsay (University of South Australia).

top Expertise for media contact

Gender and economic restructuring
Budgets and their gender impacts

Expertise for Media Contact

I am able to provide media comment in the following areas of expertise:

Discipline:

Research Degree Supervisor

I am interested in supervising in the areas of my research interests outlined above (gender and government budgets, gender and economic restructuring and gender and economic policies. I am currently supervising research theses on topics that include:

  • Gender responsive budgets
  • Caring labour in the nursing and aged care industries
  • Social sustainability in the aquaculture industry
  • Cultural creativity and neoliberal policies
  • Internationalism and tertiary education
  • Privatisation and the electricity industry




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