Women’s Leadership Institute Australia (WLIA) warmly welcomes Andrea Carson as our latest Research Fellow.
Andrea Carson is a political scientist and an Associate Professor (Journalism) in the department of Politics, Media and Philosophy at La Trobe University, Melbourne.
Her research focuses on gender, politics and the media. She has authored numerous books and articles on Australian politics, election campaigns and female representation in politics and was recently award Australian Research Council (2020) funding to study the pathways to politics for Australian women in local government.
Andrea is an inaugural council member of the Victorian Government’s Equal Workplace Advisory Council that advises government on achieving gender equity in the workplace. Prior to academia, Andrea was a professional journalist at The Age and ABC. In her current role she appears regularly as a ‘News Therapy’ guest on ABC Drive (Melbourne) with Rafael Epstein.
WLIA funds evidence-based research that offers new insights into the experiences of female leaders and progresses our understanding of how to achieve equal voice, equal representation and equal recognition. We consider: what are the knowledge and data gaps? What are the causal factors? What measures can be identified to close the gap? Through exploring these areas with expert academics and researchers, we hope to find new ways to address the issues faced, especially in politics, business and the media.
“We are thrilled to support Andrea Carson’s important research into understanding gender quotas as a measure to increase female political representation. Her study, Using experiments to understand Australian voters’ attitudes to female political representation and gender quotas contribute to La Trobe’s research theme of more just and equitable societies and aims to examine if voter attitudes towards gender quotas in politics are fixed or conditional and, if so, under what circumstances,” said Ms Sarah Buckley, CEO Trawalla Foundation and Women’s Leadership Institute Australia.
“In 2021 the time for gender equality is long overdue. Without gender equity Australia is lacking the first-class leaders and diverse perspectives that are hallmarks of strong, robust democracies. I am delighted to undertake this Fellowship with the Women's Leadership Institute Australia who, with funding from Trawalla Foundation, are working hard to improve Australia’s gender equality rankings by profiling cutting-edge research and raising awareness about the important role Australian female leadership plays in advancing Australia’s prospects in a globalised world.” said Dr Andrea Carson.
To learn more about Andrea Carson’s research priorities and projects please visit our Fellowships page where you can also read about WLIA fellows’ Isabelle Reinecke, CEO Grata Fund; Dr Leonora Risse, Lecture Economics RMIT; Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa, Chancellor's Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, as well as Danielle Wood, CEO Grattan Institute and Prof Cordelia Fine, author and Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at The University of Melbourne, Australia.