Susan Joekes is a development socio-economist with an academic research background, experience in international research management and a special interest in the Middle East. She was a long-time Fellow of the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, and from 2000 she was with Canada’s International Development Research Centre. From 2006-2012 she was based in IDRC’s Regional Office in Cairo, supporting research throughout the MENA region on trade, market regulation, gender and labour markets. From 2012-2013 she worked with the international Donor Committee for Enterprise Development, specialising on SMEs and entrepreneurship, with a special interest in women’s entrepreneurship. Her current research is concerned with economic inequality by gender and discrimination on the demand side in the Middle East, specifically a comparison of the gender dimension of employment practices in public and private sector organisations in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan.