Dr. Ramona Vijeyarasa is one of Australia’s leading experts on the ways in which legal systems address gendered issues, known for her innovative work on quantifying and addressing gender inequality in law. A Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, she pioneered the Gender Legislative Index (GLI), a ground-breaking tool using human evaluators and machine learning to evaluate the gender-responsiveness of laws worldwide. Through extensive research, she has highlighted how legal frameworks often perpetuate or insufficiently address discrimination, particularly against women and marginalized groups.

Dr Vijeyarasa’s work has influenced policy reforms, legal scholarship, and advocacy efforts, making significant contributions to international debates on gender justice. Prior to UTS, she worked for over a decade on women’s rights in international organisations, non-profits and international NGOs, including the Center for Reproductive Rights, the International Organisation for Migration in Vietnam and Ukraine and as head of women’s rights at ActionAid International’s headquarters for six years.

Ramona is author of The Woman President: A study of law, leadership and legacy on women’s lives based on experiences from South and Southeast Asia(OUP 2022), editor of International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality: Making the law work for women(Routledge, 2021) and author of Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Women: Myths and Misconceptions about Trafficking and its Victims (Routledge 2015). Her latest book, Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century, will be published by University of California Press in January 2026.

WLIA Fellows