Maryse Helbert has been an advocate for and a researcher of women’s participation in politics and decision making for over a decade. In the 2000s, she conducted capacity and movement-building sessions for women interested in presenting themselves for election, and lobbied politicians and government officials for a robust and meaningful law. Maryse has since broadened her research to include women’s involvement in decision-making processes related to development, specifically in the context of resource exploitation and climate change. Her PhD dissertation, “Women in the Oil Zones: A Feminist Analysis of Oil Depletion, Poverty, Conflict and Environmental Degradation,” exposes the sidelining of women from decision-making processes at local, national, and international levels on issues of energy security, and challenges the paradigms of corporate social responsibility in the extractive industries.

Maryse has delivered lectures in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia, for the past 10 years.