Women’s rights advocate recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Long-time advocate for women’s rights, girls’ education and governance arrangements that meet the needs of both women and men, Professor Shirley Randell AM, PhD, FACE, FAIM, FAICD, has been made an Officer of the Order of Australia ‘for her distinguished service to international relations, particularly through the promotion of human rights of women and through public sector reform in developing countries’. You can review the full list of recipients.

Currently serving as Director of the Centre for Gender, Culture and Development Studies at the Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda, Shirley has had a long and distinguished career that has included a sustained focus on advancing the rights and status of women and supporting the development of civil society organisations that advocate for women’s rights.

Shirley was involved in IWDA’s 2007 tender to provide gender training for AusAID staff, as a sectoral adviser on gender and governance, and IWDA is thrilled to see her expertise, effort and commitment acknowledged in this way.

In an interview posted on the ABC website, Shirley welcomed the fact that work for and by women was being acknowledged in the Queens Birthday Honours list, while downplaying her own very significant contribution:

‘I just think it’s fantastic when women get recognised in this way because there have not been many wonderful women, who’ve had much more of a contribution then I’ve had, recognised by the Order of Australia,’ she said.

IWDA shares Shirley’s concern about the continuing under-representation of women as honours recipients overall; while the representation of women has increased in the last decade, male recipients still significantly outnumber female recipients. We encourage those of you who know and work with fantastic women contributing across all walks of life to nominate them for wider recognition – not just for the Australia Day or Queens Birthday honours, but awards such as the Australian Women Entrepreneur of the Year, or the Victorian Women’s Honour Role. If you want to grasp the moment and begin the process of nominating an inspiring contributor and leader you know, you can download the nomination forms

Shirley’s career includes periods teaching at the University of PNG in the 1970s, with the Commonwealth Schools Commission and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in Australia, as Dean of Academic Affairs at the then Ballarat University College, as CEO of the Council of Adult Education in Melbourne and CEO of the City of Whitehorse. She has then shared her many years of experience as a consultant and adviser, in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Sri Lanka, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, The Gambia and most recently, Rwanda.

Shirley’s work as an author, editor and publisher for Blackstone Publishing led to the publication of some key Pacific women’s writing, including Pacific Creative Writing in Memory of Grace Mera Molisa, and Molisa’s own Women and Good Governance, as well as I Stret Nomo: women in Vanuatu can do anything, which celebrated women in non-traditional technical and vocational trade and professions, Pacific Women on the Move: Establishment of PGWNET, and Awareness raising on Court Rules relating to Domestic Violence in Vanuatu.

In recent years, Shirley has been based in Rwanda, continuing to advocate for women’s education, working alongside colleagues in the Rwanda Association of University Women, and establishing a new Centre for Gender, Culture and Development Studies at the Kigali Institute of Education in Rwanda. You can read more about her work at http://www.shirleyrandell.com.au/ The Centre is currently calling for papers for a conference in November on Women’s empowerment through community based tourism and cultural exchange: chances and challenges of grassroots development projects.

Download Call for papers for gender and development conference in Kigali

IWDA salutes Shirley, and the many other women who have worked with and alongside her to promote women’s rights and build organisations, policies, programs and systems to advance gender equality.

Tags: News

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 15th, 2010 under Media, Recent.