About the research team
Dr Monica Costa
Monica Costa is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender, at the University of Adelaide. She is an economist and gender and development researcher with a particular focus on the application of Gender-Responsive Budgeting. Her book - Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in Fragile States: The case of Timor-Leste - is the first international publication addressing the potential of gender budgeting in fragile state contexts. She has published widely in leading journals and has worked on gender issues in Australia, Portugal, Timor Leste, Solomon Islands, and Indonesia. She has worked with a range of partners including the Australian aid program, UN agencies, and International NGOs. In 2008 she was an adviser to the Timor-Leste Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality, and over the years she has been engaged in a variety of regional training course on Gender-Responsive Budgeting, and Women in Politics.
Professor Emerita Rhonda Sharp
Rhonda Sharp is an Emeritus Professor and former Professor of Economics at the University of South Australia. The focus of her work has been to integrate a gender perspective into economic policies through research, and working with governments, NGOS and international organisations,
Professor Sharp's development of a conceptual framework for gender-responsive budgets, including developing the framework for the first South Australian government Women’s Budget Statement, has had a significant influence on initiatives implemented in Australia and internationally. Her pioneering publications include the first peer reviewed journal article on the idea of gender-responsive budgeting as it emerged in Australia (with Ray Broomhill) and the first resource for policymakers, advocates and trainers of the theory and practice of gender-responsive budgeting (with Debbie Budlender). She also produced an influential early feminist economics analysis of Australian policy (with Ray Broomhill) and an assessment of the strengths and limitations of the development of performance budgeting systems for gender-responsive budgeting (See publications section). Her recent gender-responsive budgeting research has involved collaborations with Monica Costa and Siobhan Austen on a gender analysis of the care economy, aged care, superannuation and retirement incomes.
Professor Sharp was a founding member of the International Association for Feminist Economics and served as its President in 2000. She has been awarded a Centenary Federation medal by the Australian government for services to education and society and an Australia Day Honours Award (AM) for her services to the study of women and economics.
Professor Emerita Siobhan Austen
Siobhan Austen is Emeritus Professor of Economics at Curtin University and Director of the Women in Social and Economic Research (WiSER) research cluster. She researches and advisors on gender and economic policies with a focus on labour markets, intrahousehold distribution, population ageing and retirement incomes. Her strong expertise in large databases has produced analyses of gender gaps in lifetime earnings and superannuation
Professor Austen has published more than 100 scholarly works including papers and chapters on gender budgeting in Timor-Leste with Monica Costa and Rhonda Sharp.
She has led several large research projects including Australian Research Council Discovery Projects on intra-household resource allocation and the aged care workforce, and has participated in Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and AusAID – funded projects. She has supervised numerous PhD, Masters and Honours’ theses. Her community roles are extensive. Siobhan is on the editorial boards of Journal of Economic Issues, Feminist Economics, and Economics and Labour Relations Review. She is a member of the Work and Family Roundtable.
