Dr. Irene Tinker

Biography

Founder of the International Centre for Research on Women and a pioneer in studying the economic impact on women in developing countries, Irene Tinker combined scholarship with activism throughout her professional life. Her interest in studying cultures began while she was in India and England in 1951, where she conducted research for her doctoral dissertation at the London School of Economics after graduating from Radcliffe/Harvard. Following her marriage, she moved to Kenya and London, chronicling this adventure in her work 'Crossing Centuries: A Road Trip Through Colonial Africa'. As a researcher for the Modern India Project at the University of California, Berkeley, she co-edited 'Leadership and Political Institutions in India' published by Princeton University Press in 1959. In 1989, she returned to Berkeley as a professor in the Departments of City and Regional Planning and Women's Studies and retired in 1998. After a two-year fellowship in Indonesia, she moved to Washington, D.C., becoming active in the burgeoning women's movement both nationally and internationally. Tinker co-founded the Wellesley Center for Research on Women and the International Center for Research on Women and the Equity Policy Center. She served as a U.S. delegate to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in 1973 and organized an international conference on women and development in preparation for the U.N. World Conference on Women in 1995. Her prolific writing includes the book 'Street Foods: Food and Employment in Developing Countries' and edited volumes addressing women's issues such as 'Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development'.

Research Interests