Belinda Probert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belinda Probert (born 1949) is an Australian social scientist and writer who has advised non-government organisations and state and national governments in Australia. Her academic research and writing has been in the areas of employment policy, gender equity, and work and welfare reform, including households and the domestic division of labour.[1] She has held senior leadership roles in several universities as well as with the Australian Research Council, where she was a member and Deputy Chair of the Research Training and Careers Committee (1993–1998), and member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Expert Advisory Committee.[2]
In 2000, Probert was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.[3] Other key appointments have been Chair of the Best Value in Local Government Commission Victoria, member of the Work Family and Community Life Advisory Committee of the Office of Women’s Policy in the Department of Premier and Cabinet of the Victorian State Government, and commissioner of the Australian Council of Social Service Future of Work Commission.[3] Probert was a foundation member of the Carrick Institute/Australian Learning and Teaching Council (2004–2009).
After retiring from her university career, Probert became a writer of narrative nonfiction, with books published in 2021 and 2025.
Born in Brentwood, Essex, England, Probert gained her BSc (economics) in 1971 at University College, London. After two years as a research assistant at the Northern Ireland Research Institute, Belfast, United Kingdom, she gained a Social Science Research Council scholarship for postgraduate studies at Lancaster University, where she was awarded a PhD in 1976 for her thesis on protestant politics in Northern Ireland.[1][4][5] She settled in Australia in 1976 to take up a lectureship in social and political theory at Murdoch University in Western Australia.[4]
