Leonora Risse is an economist who specialises in gender equality. She is an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Canberra and a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia, and serves as an Expert Panel Member on gender pay equity for the Fair Work Commission. She formerly held roles with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University and the Australian Government Productivity Commission. She earned her PhD in Economics from the University of Queensland.
Leonora’s research focuses on gender gaps in the workplace, including the gender pay gap and women’s under-representation in leadership and decision-making. She is a co-founder and former National Chair of the Women in Economics Network (WEN) in Australia.
She engages regularly with governments and organisations on evidence-based policies to close gender gaps and how to apply a ‘gender lens’ to economic analysis and policy design, such as through gender responsive budgeting. Leonora’s economic expertise extends to labour economics, disadvantage and wellbeing, and she engages regularly with the media to empower everyday audiences with a greater understanding of economic issues.
In 2021 she was named as one of Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy, and in 2025 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Economic Society of Australia (ESA) for exceptional and sustained contributions to the Women in Economics Network and the Economic Society of Australia.