Mignon Duffy Chosen For U.N. Expert Research Group

09/20/2018
By June Lemen

Mignon Duffy, Associate Professor of Sociology, and Associate at the Center for Women & Work, has been invited to be a member of the Expert Research Group Meeting by the U.N. Commission of the Status of Women. She attended their meeting this past weekend.

The Commission of the Status of Women is convened every year around a priority theme related to advancing gender equity. Each year in preparation for the convening of the CSW (this next one is CSW63), an Expert Research Group is convened and prepares a report. That report has two purposes. First, it helps shape the report of U.N. Women (the Secretariat) that forms the basis of the dialogue among member states at the convening. Second, it is made available directly to member states and is often used/referred to during member-state negotiations and arguments. The goal of the Commission is to come away with a number of agreements that the member-states sign on to in terms of moving forward gender equity in the particular target area that year. The priority area this year is Social Protection Systems, Public Services and Infrastructure.

Mignon is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology. She has a joint Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy. Her research focus is on carework: the health care, child care, teaching and elder care jobs that meet the fundamental needs of society. She has contributed to work on social policy on carework in the state of Massachusetts. Carework is one of the core areas of research at the Center for Women & Work, and the CWW is the home of the Carework Network, the CWW was happy to sponsor the Global Carework Summit in 2017, which Duffy helped organize.