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Filomina Steady, D.Phil. (Oxon.)

Filomina Steady came to Wellesley in 1997 as professor of Africana Studies. She received her B.A. from Smith College, an M.A. from Boston University and a Doctorate from Oxford University - D.Phil. (Oxon.).

She has authored or edited books and mongraphs including Female Power in African Politics: The National Congress of Sierra Leone; The Black Woman Cross-Culturally (Award Winner), 1981; Women and Children First: Environment, Poverty and Sustainable Development, 1993; Women and the United Nations: Reflections and New Horizons, 1995; Women and the Amistad Connection: Sierra Leone krio Society, 2001; Black Women, Globalization and Economic Justice, 2002; Women and Collective Action in Africa: Development, Democratization and Empowerment, Palgrave/Macmillan, 2006.

Prior to Wellesley she taught at the University of Sierra Leone, Yale University, Boston University, Wesleyan University and California State University in Sacramento where she was also chair and director of the Women's Studies Program.

She has also published numerous articles and chapters in edited books as well as reviews in several journals including American Anthropologist; Race, Gender and Class; Development Dialogue; The Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and Environmental Child Health; Environmental Values; The Journal of African Women for Research and Development (Echo); Nutritional Education; The Encyclopedia on Feminism; The Feminist Press, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Africa World Press, Palgrave/Macmillan.

She has travelled extensively and has presented papers at several international conferences. She is a founding member of the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD) based in Dakar.

Filomina Steady is the recepient of the Ioma Evans-Pritchard Research Award of Oxford University and the Otelia Cromwell Distinguished Alumna Award of Smith College.

She has served as Special Advisor, Senior Consultant and/or Director at the United Nations in Vienna, Geneva, Vienna, Addis Ababa and New York. She has also been a delegate to several United Nations conferences and was one of the nominees for the post of Secretary General of the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995.

She is the president of the Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF) based in Geneva, Switzerland. WWSF is an international organization which helps to promote the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Professor Steady is married and is the mother of three children.