Dalia Leinarte is a historian, author and current member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). She is the former chair of the CEDAW
Elected as one of the 100 most influential people in gender policy around the world https://apolitical.co/home

In 1996 Leinarte earned her PhD in History at Vytautas Magnus University, and became full Professor in 2008. She held the position of Chair of the Gender Studies Center at Vilnius University for almost twenty years. Leinarte has won several prestigious international academic awards, the Fulbright (2002-2003) and a scholarship of the American Association of University Women (2005-2006).

Leinarte writes for the Lithuanian public broadcaster, Lithuanian Radio and Television (lrt.lt) on human rights, gender equality, feminism, and issues of nationalism and history.

Leinarte is the author of the monograph The Lithuanian Family in its European Context, 1800-1914: Marriage, Divorce and Flexible Communities (Palgrav Macmillan, 2017), awarded the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) Book Prize 2018 (Honourable Mention).

Her previous book was devoted to women’s experiences of everyday life during Soviet times. Experiencing a totalitarian system as an insider as well as researching it opened a path for a better understanding of the Soviet past. After the break from the USSR, she interviewed number of women and wrote the oral history book, Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality: Life Stories of Lithuanian Women, 1945–1970 (Rodopi, 2010).

Her historical knowledge of European family history covers more than two hundred years, resulting in the co-edited book (with Jan Kok), Cohabitation in Europe: a Revenge of History? (Routledge, 2017).

The most recent of her honors is the Cross of Officer of the Order for Merits to Lithuania, by the order of the President of the Republic of Lithuania in 2019.

Dalia Leinarte was born in the medieval capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Trakai, in 1958. She grew up in the former Soviet Union, and met the restoration of the Independence of Lithuania as a young woman in 1990. She has two daughters, Dalyte and Emilija.

Current positions:

Since 2017
Professor at Vytautas Magnus University, Andrei Sakharov Research Centre for Democratic Development
Since 2014
Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge
Since 2013
Member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW

Functions at the UN CEDAW:

2017 - 2018
Chairperson
Since 2018
Chair of the Working Group on the General Recommendation Trafficking in Women&Girls in the Context of Global Migration
Since 2018
Focal point on 2020 Review on the Reform of UN Treaty Bodies
2017 - 2018
Member of the Working Group on Inquiries under Optional Protocol
2015 - 2016
Vice-Chairperson
2015 - 2016, since 2019
Member of the Working Group on Individual Communications under Optional Protocol

Other positions:

Since 2013
Member of the Management Board of the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE), the European Union
Since 2000
Consultant of the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men, Lithuania
2000 - 2017
Professor of Family History and Director of the Gender Studies Centre at Vilnius University, Lithuania
2005 - 2008
Visiting Professor at Idaho State University, Women’s Studies Programme

Educational background:

1996
Ph.D in History, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
1993
MA in History, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
2005 - 2006
Research Scholar, American Association of University Women, USA
2002 - 2003
FULBRIGHT Scholar, State University of New York, USA

Working languages: Lithuanian, English, Russian

Major Awards:

2019
The Cross of Officer of the Order for Merits to Lithuania, by the order of the President of the Republic of Lithuania
2011
Women Inspiring Europe, by European Institute for Gender Equality, EIGE
1998
International Women’s Solidarity Award, Norway

Books:

  • The Lithuanian Family in its European Context, 1800-1914: Marriage, Divorce and Flexible Communities. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Book Prize 2018 (Honourable Mention) of Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS)
  • Cohabitation in Europe: a Revenge of History? co-edited (with Jan Kok). New York: Routledge, 2017
  • The Soviet Past in the Post-Soviet Present, co-edited (with Melanie Ilic). Routledge: New York, 2015
  • Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality: Life Stories of Lithuanian Women, 1945–1970. Amsterdam, New York: Brill, 2010