Marilyn Waring

Marilyn Waring is a New Zealand feminist, an activist for "female human rights", an author and an academic. She holds a Ph.D. in political economy. A member of the conservative National Party, she became at 22 the youngest member of the New Zealand Parliament in 1975, for Raglan.
In 1978 she became the MP for Waipa, and remained in the House of Representatives until 1984 (she is sometimes said to have precipitated the disastrous (for her party) snap election of that year by threatening to side with the opposition on an important vote). At the time of her election, she was only the fifteenth woman elected as a Member of Parliament in New Zealand.
As of 2006, Waring works as a Professor of Public Policy at the Institute of Public Policy at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. She has held Fellowships at Harvard and Rutgers Universities. She is a member of the Board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
Waring has worked as a consultant for organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women), the Yukon Territorial Government, the Ford Foundation, and the Ontario Provincial Government.
Waring became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2008 New Year's Honours List, for her services to women and economics.