Tinker, Irene (1927-) | University of Illinois Archives

Irene Tinker is a professor emeritus from the University of California-Berkeley.  She received her bachelors degree from Radcliffe College in political philosophy and comparative government and her PhD. from London School of Economics and Political Science in comparative government and development.  She also performed action-research for several non-profit organizations including the Equity Policy Research Center, ACTION, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Her research area is world development and the different impact development has on women and men.  Tinker worked with several different scholars during the 15 year-long Street Foods project, which studied ways to improve the quality and safety of street foods provided by venders in seven cities in developing countries.  She also did a comparative study of non-governmental organizations and used a Pacific Rim grant to organize a network of U.S. scholars to work with women scholars in China, Laos, and Vietnam. 

Selected honors:

Distinguished Service Award, Wellesley Center for Research on Women (May 1995).

Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center, Italy (March-April 1994).

Outstanding Leadership in Women in Development, Association for Women in Development, 1989.

Fulbright Regional Award to Nepal and Sri Lanka (1987-1989).

Distinguished Service to Rural Life, Rural Sociological Society (1985).

Recent Publications:

Street Foods: Urban Food and Employment in Developing Countries.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Engendering Wealth and Well-Being, ed. Rae Blumberg, Cathy Rakowski and Michal Monteon.  Chapter: "Beyond Economics: Sheltering the Whole Woman." Westview, 1995.

Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development, editor and author of two chapters, Oxford University Press, 1990.

"Microentrepreneurs and Homeworkers: Convergent Categories," with Lisa Prugl, World Development v.25, n.9 (1997).

"Women, Donors, and Community Forestry in Nepal: Expectations and Realities," Society and National Resources v.7, n. 4 (1994).