Centre for Decent Work and Industry is proud to host its next Public Seminar Series on gender equality with economist, Associate Professor Leonora Risse, University of Canberra.

Abstract
Our collective understanding of the causes and consequences of gender gaps in the workforce, and what works to close them, is growing. Yet, gender gaps persist, and the array of potential policies can be overwhelming to navigate. Resistance to diversity initiatives makes the path to gender equality an even more challenging one.

This presentation maps out a ‘big picture’ framework for navigating the research evidence on what works to close gender gaps in economic outcomes – and what doesn’t. This approach offers a framework to understand how various gender equality initiatives – from paid parental leave and diversity training to pay audits and gender-responsive budgeting – fit into society’s progressive journey to gender equality.

This approach also prompts us to interrogate underlying motives for gender equality, to ask whether we have accurately defined “women’s ‘economic empowerment”, and to discover how an intersectional gender lens means more than simply disaggregating the data. This presentation interweaves these various dimensions, offering wide-reaching applicability to researchers, employers, policymakers and governments.

Bio
Dr Leonora Risse is an economist who specialises in gender equality. She is currently appointed as an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Canberra and a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia,and serves as an Expert Panel Member on gender pay equity for the Fair Work Commission. She formerly held roles with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University and the Australian Government Productivity Commission. She is a co-founder and former National Chair of the Women in Economics Network (WEN) in Australia.

Dr Risse’s research focuses on gender gaps in the workplace, including the gender pay gap and women’s under-representation in leadership and decision-making. She engages regularly with governments and organisations on evidence-based policies to close gender gaps and how to apply a ‘gender lens’ to economic analysis and policy design through Gender Responsive Budgeting. Her economic expertise extends to labour economics, disadvantage and wellbeing.

She engages regularly with the media to empower everyday audiences with a greater understanding of economic issues. In 2021 she was named as one of Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy.

Dr Risse holds a PhD in Economics, Bachelor of Economics with Honours, and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

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