Ruth Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Ruth teaches across the social work program, specialising in social policy and has supervised a wide range of PhDs to completion. Ruth’s research encompasses social policy, third sector studies and feminism. She also has a particular research interest in the South Korean welfare state and strong connections in East and South East Asia. This has been strongly maintained through the supervision of a large number of PhD students from the region.

Although Ruth’s move from working in social policy in government to academia was facilitated by a PhD at the University of NSW (2001) in global political economy, she has published widely in the fields of social policy, social work and the third sector. Ruth was recently appointed to the board of the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) and subsequently resigned a 5-year stint as an editor of the Australian journal Third Sector Research.

Although her social policy research interests are wide, Ruth has maintained a specific research interest on developments in domestic violence policy in Australia. This sits well with her interest in feminist theory and influence across the world and wider struggles for women’s emancipation and equality. Ruth has recently published the findings of a global study of women’s NGOs’ understanding of gender equality and their relationship to feminist theory. This study was prompted by concerns that on a global scale, the last 40 years of feminist influence on policy has failed to see widespread achievements in women’s equality with men or the cessation of many oppressive gendered practices of brutalisation against women. Ruth has been an active feminist since her early adulthood and in all phases of her life has been committed to change that helps address gender inequality.