Marya Hillesland

Marya’s research is centered on gender and development. In particular, her research focuses on intrahousehold dynamics; women’s empowerment and agency; agriculture, agricultural statistics; time poverty; water and food insecurity; livelihoods; asset and wealth inequalities within the Global South.

Her current research draws from both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore issues of water insecurity within the Global South and how it intersects with social inequalities and intrahousehold dynamics. This work is part of REACH, a global research programme to improve water security for the poor and the GCRF Water Security and Sustainable Development Hub. She is also collaborating with an inter-organisation research group, MAGNET, housed at the World Bank's Africa Region Gender Innovation Lab (GIL) on the development and validation of quantitative tools to measure asset inequalities and women’s agency.

Marya served more than five years at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy. At FAO, her work included leading projects to develop data collection methods to better understand gender dynamics and livelihoods in smallholder agricultural households in the Global South; leading research on women’s empowerment in agriculture; and informing FAO's management team of ways to further integrate gender analysis into FAO’s strategic programmes.

Marya has also worked with CGIAR, UNWomen, and USAID. She has field experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

She has taught the graduate module in gender and development as part of the MSc in Economics for Development at ODID. She received the James H. Weaver Teaching Excellence Award as an Adjunct Professor at American University, Washington, DC, for her courses on feminist economic thought and gender roles in the economy.