Devaki Jain is an economist, graduated from St. Anne’s college, Oxford and was elected as the Honorary Fellow of the college in 2016. She was a lecturer in Economics in Delhi University from 1963- 69. She has been a visiting fellow at Harvard University, Boston University, University of Sussex, SIAS and Oxford University. She has an honorary doctorate from the University of Westville, Durban, South Africa. She was a member of the erstwhile South Commission chaired by Dr. Julius Nyerere.
She is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan in 2006.
Over the course of her career she founded a wide range of institutions. She was the founder- director of the Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST). Founding member of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS) as well as Development Alternatives for Women for a New era (DAWN) – a third world network of women social scientists.
She has been the author of many books and essays related to women with special reference to their economic growth. Some of the books include Tyranny of the Household: Investigative Essays on Women’s Work, Women’s Quest for Power: Five Indian Case Studies, Women, Development and the UN: A Sixty-Year Quest for Equality and Justice, Journey of a Southern Feminist and Close Encounters of Another Kind. She recently got her memoir, ‘The Brass Notebook’ published by Speaking Tiger.http://www.devakijain.in/
