Hyman earned a
Master of Arts degree at the
University of Oxford. While a student there in the 1960s, she was barred from joining the
Oxford Union, and so campaigned for women to be allowed to join the society. The campaign was successful, and Hyman was one of the first women to serve on the Oxford Union's Standing Committee. After graduating from Oxford University, Hyman worked as a statistician before emigrating to New Zealand in 1969 to work at
Victoria University of Wellington. At Victoria, she was involved in the Women's Studies at the university and the Women's Studies Association. Hyman became a feminist and her research focuses on the links between ethnic, class and gender discrimination. Hyman studied the personal aspects of economics rather than the typical corporate or governmental aspects and is frequently called on by the popular press on issues such as
living wages and
pay equity on which she has published widely and makes the case for the disadvantaged:
economics wildly exaggerates the productivity justifications for such wide differences [between the wealthy and the poor]. Top people essentially pay themselves and each other what they can get away with while squeezing those at the bottom. She was a founding member of, and remains a significant contributor to, the
Labour, Employment and Work in New Zealand conferences at Victoria. Hyman's 2000 report into the culture of the
New Zealand Police, commissioned by the police themselves, has been cited as a major driver for change within the force. Hyman eventually rose to become an
associate professor of economics and gender and women's studies at Victoria University. She resigned after the University dissolved its gender and women's studies programme during a controversial restructuring between 2008 and 2010. ==Political activism==