PhD student Francisca Sarpong Owusu awarded Rhonda Williams Prize

PhD student, Francisca Sarpong Owusu, was awarded the Rhonda Williams Prize by the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) for her conference paper exploring the role of agenda-setting and policy windows in shaping decisions about the taxation of menstrual products in Ghana and Rwanda. The prize was awarded at IAFFE’s 34th Annual Conference, ICESI University, Cali, Colombia, on July 10, 2026.

The prize is offered in honour of Rhonda Williams, a leading scholar of the political economy of race and gender and former associate editor of Feminist Economics, to scholars whose work reflects Rhonda Williams’s legacy of scholarship and activism.

Francisca’s paper, which forms part of her broader research interests, examines the conditions under which progressive tax reforms succeed in Rwanda and fail in Ghana, using agenda-setting and policy windows as an analytical lens to trace the processes that contributed to the repeal of the tampon tax in both countries.

In commending Francisca’s work, the prize committee noted: “Your application distinguished itself through its powerful articulation of the connections between scholarship and activism, and your commitment to addressing inequalities rooted in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and nationality.”

Francisca is grateful to the IAFFE for this recognition and extends her appreciation to her PhD supervisor, Dr. Michelle Dion, for her continued support and to Dr. Katherine Boothe for the feedback on the paper.