FILOMINA STEADY is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies (Gender Studies and Environmental Justice) at Wellesley College, USA. She is a recipient of the Otelia Cromwell Distinguished Alumna award from Smith College and obtained her doctorate (D.Phil.) from Oxford University where she received the Ioma Evans-Pritchard Research Award. She has taught at several universities in the United States and in Africa. Her publications include the award-winning anthology, The Black Woman Cross-Culturally and two recent books, Women and Amistad Connection, and Women and Collective Action in Africa. She has served as a Director and Special Advisor to the United Nations in Vienna, Geneva, New York and Addis Ababa, and is a founding member of the Association of African Women for Research and Development (AAWORD).