Caren Grown is an internationally recognized expert on gender issues in development. Prior to joining the Bank, she was Economist-In-Residence and co-director of the Program on Gender Analysis in Economics at American University in Washington, DC. In 2013-2014, she led the UNU-WIDER program on aid effectiveness and gender equality. During 2011-2013, she served as Senior Gender Advisor at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), where she crafted the Agency’s Gender Equality and Female Empowerment policy and led efforts to implement it.
She has held positions at The Levy Economics Institute at Bard College, the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), and the MacArthur Foundation. She contributed to placing gender equality at the core of the MDGs as Senior Associate of Task Force 3 of the UN Millennium Project. As the longest-serving member of the External Gender Forum of the Asian Development Bank, she advised on mainstreaming, research, and results measurement.
Dr. Grown’s recent books include Taxation and Gender Equity, co-edited with Imraan Valodia (Routledge 2010), The Feminist Economics of Trade, co-edited with Irene Van Staveren, Diane Elson, and Nilufer Cagatay (Routledge 2007), and Trading Women's Health and Rights: the Role of Trade Liberalization and Development, co-edited with Elissa Braunstein and Anju Malhotra (Zed Books 2006). Her articles have appeared in World Development, Journal of International Development, Feminist Economics, Health Policy and Planning, and The Lancet.
Dr. Grown was an Associate Editor of Feminist Economics and a founding member of the International Working Group on Gender and Macroeconomics (GEM-IWG). Dr. Grown holds a PhD and MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research and Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
