Kate Grosser

Kate Grosser's research has played a pioneering role in critically engaging with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory and practice from feminist perspectives, and bringing gender analysis to the business and human rights field. She has been particularly interested in CSR as a process of governance, the contribution of feminist theories, and the relationship between CSR and feminist social movements. Kate edited the first special section on gender, business ethics and CSR at a business ethics journal - Business Ethics Quarterly (2017). Her work is also published in, among others: Journal of Business Ethics; Gender, Work and Organization; Organization; Business Ethics: A European Review; and she is editor of Gender Equality and Responsible Business (ed.) (Routledge, 2016). She served on the Distinguished Advisory Board at Gender, Work & Organization. Her current research extends to exploring culture-centred approaches to sustainable development in Australia. 

Kate is Co-Director of RMIT’s Business and Human Rights Centre, where she also leads a gender research cluster. She maintains extensive engagement with policy and practice, having acted as advisor on ‘integrating a gender perspective’ to the United Nations Special Representative on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises, and the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights. She co-hosted the UN Australian Consultation on Gender, Business and Human Rights (2018) in collaboration with the Australian Human Rights Commission and Australian Human Rights Institute. In 2021 she co-hosted an international gender consultation, along with the Global Business Initiative on Human Rights and the Danish Human Rights Institute, to inform the UN next decade roadmap for business and human rights. She has also acted as advisor to numerous non-governmental organizations, and business organizations.

Originally a Social Anthropologist (Cambridge), with a Masters in International Relations - Politics of the World Economy (London School of Economics), Kate completed her PhD at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Nottingham University Business School (2011), and has taught CSR and sustainability at numerous universities in the UK and Australia.