Eva Cox was born Eva Hauser in Vienna in 1938, and was soon declared non human and stateless by Hitler. So she grew up as a refugee in England, till 1946, lived in Rome till 1948, and arrived in Australia aged 10. These early experiences influenced her commitments and her rejection of injustices. She involves herself in many social and political issues and has worked for government and voluntary organisations in Australia. She has been an active and irrepressible advocate for creating more civil societies. She was co founder of the Women's Economic Think Tank (WETTANK), a long term member of Women's Electoral Lobby and an unabashed feminist. She is now involved in projects looking at social and ethical accounting for responsible business enterprises.

Her current work is focused on Social Capital and Political Culture and arose from her ABC Boyer Lecturer, the text is published as 'A Truly Civil Society' (ABC 1995). These dealt with the necessity for seeing social cohesion, trust and co-operation as keys to both democratic and civil society. She recently published another book, (Leading Women, Random House 1996) which looks at strategies for achieving change, including involving more women in leadership positions.

In 1995, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of her many contributions on social issues.

Eva is currently lecturing in the social sciences at the University of Technology in Sydney. She is a sociologist by trade and has undertaken many research projects for Government, the private sector and community groups. She has published widely and eclectically in books, journals and newspapers. Her interests include child care, superannuation, unpaid work, use of telephones, skills and training, labour force studies, public policy, social security and public health. She is currently researching the ideas of social and ethical accountability.

She has one daughter and lives in inner city Sydney and wonders whether she is becoming too respectable!