Skip to main content

Site navigation

  • University of Technology Sydney home
  • Home

    Home
  • For students

  • For industry

  • Research

Explore

  • Courses
  • Events
  • News
  • Stories
  • People

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Study at UTS

    • arrow_right_alt Find a course
    • arrow_right_alt Course areas
    • arrow_right_alt Undergraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Postgraduate students
    • arrow_right_alt Research Masters and PhD
    • arrow_right_alt Online study and short courses
  • Student information

    • arrow_right_alt Current students
    • arrow_right_alt New UTS students
    • arrow_right_alt Graduates (Alumni)
    • arrow_right_alt High school students
    • arrow_right_alt Indigenous students
    • arrow_right_alt International students
  • Admissions

    • arrow_right_alt How to apply
    • arrow_right_alt Entry pathways
    • arrow_right_alt Eligibility
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for students

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Apply for a coursearrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt
  • Scholarshipsarrow_right_alt
  • Featured industries

    • arrow_right_alt Agriculture and food
    • arrow_right_alt Defence and space
    • arrow_right_alt Energy and transport
    • arrow_right_alt Government and policy
    • arrow_right_alt Health and medical
    • arrow_right_alt Corporate training
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Tech Central
    • arrow_right_alt Case studies
    • arrow_right_alt Research
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for industry

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Partner with usarrow_right_alt
  • Explore

    • arrow_right_alt Explore our research
    • arrow_right_alt Research centres and institutes
    • arrow_right_alt Graduate research
    • arrow_right_alt Research partnerships
arrow_right_altVisit our hub for research

For you

  • Libraryarrow_right_alt
  • Staffarrow_right_alt
  • Alumniarrow_right_alt
  • Current studentsarrow_right_alt

POPULAR LINKS

  • Find a UTS expertarrow_right_alt
  • Research centres and institutesarrow_right_alt
  • University of Technology Sydney home
Explore the University of Technology Sydney
Category Filters:
University of Technology Sydney home University of Technology Sydney home
  1. home
  2. arrow_forward_ios ... Newsroom
  3. arrow_forward_ios ... 2020
  4. arrow_forward_ios 05
  5. arrow_forward_ios Cutting-edge Tech Allows Lawyers to Legislate for Equality

Cutting-edge Tech Allows Lawyers to Legislate for Equality

7 May 2020
Gender Legisative Index

Law and data science work to identify and address gender equality. Image: UTS

But when we analyse different laws, how do we determine which laws are effective in advancing women’s rights and which are not; which ones work and which ones fail?

A novel initiative between UTS engineering, data science and legal expertise is enabling Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa from the UTS Faculty of Law to create a unique way to answer these questions.

In collaboration with Rapido Social and the Connected Intelligence Centre (CIC) at UTS, she has developed an analytic tool, the Gender Legislative Index (GLI), to benchmark, score and rank laws on a scale from gender regressive to gender responsive.

Dr Vijeyarasa piloted the GLI in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines to analyse areas of law including gender-based violence, labour, reproductive health, taxation and family law.

The GLI includes a set of international women’s rights standards that countries are required to meet, concrete benchmarks for particular areas of law, and a way to compare legislative progress across countries and over periods of time.

The GLI is now available online and Dr Vijeyarasa says the next step is to look at a further 10 areas of law across 15 other countries:

We also want to extend our study to develop better evidence of the institutional and structural factors that may have helped bring about the enactment of gender-responsive laws as well as evaluate their success in delivering better outcomes for women.

Sophie Ritchie is the Manager of the Rapido Social program, a unique social innovation initiative which makes cutting-edge technology services more available to the social impact sector.  With Dr Vijeyarasa, she has been managing the digital delivery of the GLI. 

The GLI is an excellent example of innovating through leveraging multi-disciplinary expertise. Rapido technologists drove the User Experience (UX) work and software engineering that powers the GLI; and Ramona brought the legal expertise to the collaboration. To-date, this project has been one of the greatest successes of the Rapido Social program.

Dr Vijeyarasa is also currently using the GLI as a research tool to assess the legislative footprint of four women leaders from Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia by looking at legislation enacted during their tenure. She plans to do the same with Julia Gillard’s time as Prime Minister.

This would help us to better understand the difference women leaders make and link this to global advocacy for more equal representation of women among world leaders.

The GLI is also designed to help legislators produce new bills that play their part in correcting discrimination and advancing equality and women’s rights.

UTS Rapido Social was established in 2017 by Hervé Harvard, Director, Rapido, to make cutting-edge technology services more available to the social impact sector.  The program uses engineering to create public impact for communities that need it most, and to help solve pressing societal challenges. Since its inception, it has delivered nine different social impact projects in seven different cause areas on a pro-bono or low-bono basis.

Share
Share this on Facebook Share this on Twitter Share this on LinkedIn
Back to News in UTS Engineering and Information Technology

Related News

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and the Boorooberongal People of the Dharug Nation upon whose ancestral lands our campuses now stand. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands. 

University of Technology Sydney

City Campus

15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007

Get in touch with UTS

Follow us

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

A member of

  • Australian Technology Network
Use arrow keys to navigate within each column of links. Press Tab to move between columns.

Study

  • Find a course
  • Undergraduate
  • Postgraduate
  • How to apply
  • Scholarships and prizes
  • International students
  • Campus maps
  • Accommodation

Engage

  • Find an expert
  • Industry
  • News
  • Events
  • Experience UTS
  • Research
  • Stories
  • Alumni

About

  • Who we are
  • Faculties
  • Learning and teaching
  • Sustainability
  • Initiatives
  • Equity, diversity and inclusion
  • Campus and locations
  • Awards and rankings
  • UTS governance

Staff and students

  • Current students
  • Help and support
  • Library
  • Policies
  • StaffConnect
  • Working at UTS
  • UTS Handbook
  • Contact us
  • Copyright © 2025
  • ABN: 77 257 686 961
  • CRICOS provider number: 00099F
  • TEQSA provider number: PRV12060
  • TEQSA category: Australian University
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Accessibility