Belinda Probert

Belinda Probert (born 1949) is an Australian social scientist and writer who has advised non-government organisations and state and national governments in Australia. Her academic research and writing has been in the areas of employment policy, gender equity, and work and welfare reform, including households and the domestic division of labour. She has held senior leadership roles in several universities as well as with the Australian Research Council, where she was a member and Deputy Chair of the Research Training and Careers Committee (1993–1998), and member of the Social, Behavioural and Economic Sciences Expert Advisory Committee.

In 2000, Probert was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Other key appointments have been Chair of the Best Value in Local Government Commission Victoria, member of the Work Family and Community Life Advisory Committee of the Office of Women’s Policy in the Department of Premier and Cabinet of the Victorian State Government, and commissioner of the Australian Council of Social Service Future of Work Commission. She settled in Australia in 1976 to take up a lectureship in social and political theory at Murdoch University in Western Australia. as well as Executive Editor of the journal Labour and Industry.

In 2004, she moved back to Perth to the University of Western Australia as pro vice-chancellor (academic) (2004–2006). In 2005 she represented the Department of Education and Training on the Curriculum Council of Western Australia. Also in 2005 her research paper, "‘I Just Couldn’t Fit It In’: Gender and Unequal Outcomes in Academic Careers" was published in the journal Gender, Work and Organization.

At the beginning of 2006, she moved to Victoria for a five-year appointment as dean of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne (2006–2007). She began her task of guiding the faculty through a difficult and controversial restructure of the university to a two-tier US-style teaching model that involved significant cuts (including shedding the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies) and strident staff reaction.

She returned, however, to Australia the following year as deputy vice-chancellor at La Trobe University (2008–2012), When the university restructured in 2011 with the departure of the vice-chancellor, she retired from active university service to focus on policy and research work, remaining an adjunct professor role in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce at the university.

She was seconded to the Office for Learning and Teaching in the Department of Education (2013–2015), and has acted as a consultant and media commentator in educational services.