Eva Cox AO

Eva Cox AO (b. 1938), academic, feminist and social activist, emigrated to Australia in 1948 after her Jewish family had reunited following separation during the war. As a student at the University of Sydney she became active in politics and social issues, particularly feminism, but she left university to travel in Europe, marry British photographer John Cox and give birth to a daughter. In 1972, a single parent, she enrolled in Arts at the University of NSW, where she became deeply involved in feminism, co-founding the feminist magazine Refractory Girl in 1973 and contributing to Oz magazine. One of the early members of the Women's Electoral Lobby, she was a vociferous spokesperson on a range of social issues including feminism, superannuation, childcare, social security and public health. From 1977 to 1981 she directed the New South Wales Council for Social Services and for the following two years she was adviser to Social Services Shadow Minister Don Grimes. Later, having held a number of government advisory and public service positions, she helped to found the Women's Economic Think Tank. From 1994 to 2007 she was the senior lecturer and program director in social inquiry at the University of Technology, Sydney, and since 2007 has been a professorial fellow at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at UTS. In 1995 she gave the ABC Boyer Lectures, on the theme of 'A Truly Civil Society'. Cox is a regular contributor to social justice, social policy, and political forums across a range of media. Her awards include a Churchill Fellowship (1980), the UNSW Distinguished Alumni Award (2000) and the Council of Australian Humanist Societies' Humanist of the Year award (1998).