STAFF PROFILE
Dr Kate Grosser
Kate’s research critically engages with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) theory and practice from feminist perspectives, recently extending to gender analysis of the business and human rights agenda. She is particularly interested in CSR as a process of governance, the contribution of feminist theories, and the relationship between CSR and feminist social movements. She 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; Business Ethics: A European Review; and Gender Equality and Responsible Business (ed.) (Routledge). Kate sits on the Distinguished Advisory Board at Gender, Work & Organization (ABDC A). You can view her google scholar profile here.
Kate co-founded RMIT’s Business and Human Rights Centre where she 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.
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.
- PhD - University of Nottingham
- MSc – London School of Economics (passed with distinction)
- BA (Hons) – University of Cambridge
- McCarthy, L.,Grosser, K. (2023). Breaking isolation: Consciousness-raising as a methodology for academic activism In: Organization, 30, 1152 - 1167
- Grosser, K.,Tyler, M. (2021). Sexual Harassment, Sexual Violence and CSR: Radical Feminist Theory and a Human Rights Perspective In: Journal of Business Ethics, 177, 217 - 232
- Grosser, K. (2021). Gender, business and human rights: Academic activism as critical engagement in neoliberal times In: Gender, Work and Organization, 28, 1624 - 1637
- Grosser, K.,Moon, J. (2019). CSR and feminist organization studies: towards an integrated theorization for the analysis of gender issues In: Journal of Business Ethics, 155, 321 - 342
- Grosser, K.,McCarthy, L. (2019). Imagining New Feminist Futures: How Feminist Social Movements Contest The Neoliberalization Of Feminism In An Increasingly Corporate-Dominated World In: Gender, Work and Organisation, 26, 1100 - 1116
- Curtis, H.,Douglas, N.,Fairbrother, P.,Grosser, K.,Propokiv, V.,Rafferty, M.,Toner, P. (2018). Skills for Green Jobs in Australia In: International Labour Organisation Geneva, Switzerland
- Grosser, K.,Moon, J.,Nelson, J. (2017). Guest editors' introduction: Gender, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility: assessing and refocusing a conversation In: Business Ethics Quarterly, 27, 541 - 567
- Grosser, K. (2016). Corporate social responsibility and multi-stakeholder governance: pluralism, feminist perspectives and women's NGOs In: Journal of Business Ethics, 137, 65 - 81
- Grosser, K.,McCarthy, L.,Kilgour, M. (2016). Introduction In: Gender Equality and Responsible Business: Expanding CSR Horizons, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, United Kingdom
1 PhD Current Supervisions3 PhD Completions