Sharifah Muhairah Shahabudin is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Business & Economics, University of Malaya. She obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya in 2014. She graduated with Masters of Science (Administration) from the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UITM), and obtained her Bachelor’s in Psychology from Canterbury University, New Zealand. Her research interests are socioeconomics, social stratification, gender and youth development and entrepreneurship. She has several published articles in local and international journals and local news agencies in these areas. She is also an active member of the Gender Budget Group, a coalition spearheaded by Engender Consultancy and Women Aid's Organisation to promote and monitor gender responsive budgeting across all national budget policies and allocations. Prior to her career in academia, she has 10 years of working experience including as a Research Assistant at United Nations Development Programme, Malaysia for the Empowering Women Through Entrepreneurship project. The project has sparked her interest in research that led to her PhD. Her passion for development issues continues till today, as shown in her publications.