A blog about economics instruction. "Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler."--Albert Einstein

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Where are the Women Economists?

I found two items next to each other on the UBDaily newsletter today. One item linked to an NPR audio file discussing efforts to increase the number of women in the sciences, the issue that got economist and Harvard President Larry Summers in trouble. The second was also a link to another NPR audio file, this one discussing the fact that the majority of college graduates these days are female. Putting 2 + 2 together and arriving at 4, I shouted "Eureka!" If more women than men are graduating from college these days, then ceteris paribus, the relative number of women in the sciences can't do anything but increase. Imagine all the grief Larry Summers could have avoided had he realized this implication in the data!

The American Economic Association has long concerned itself with increasing the number of women economists. The Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession (CSWEP) is the vehicle by which that concern expresses itself. Here's some of the Committee's work:

CSWEP was the moving force behind the establishment of a child-care program at the annual AEA meetings and, with NSF support, organized a successful mentoring program at the national and regional levels in 1998. With new funding from the NSF, CSWEP launched another mentorship initiative in 2004. The first set of workshops were held immediately after the January 2004 ASSA meetings in San Diego. There will be a second set of national workshops in 2006, as well as one mentoring program at each of the regional association meetings.

I don't have any data telling me how successful the Committee's efforts have been. When I was in college, most of my English teachers were women and most of my economics teachers were men. From what I can see at the meetings, there are still a lot of male economists, but more women than when I was in school. As for the teaching of economics, I don't know what role gender plays. I've found an article that might give me some answers: "Gender and the Study of Economics: The Role of Gender of the Instructor." Journal of Economic Education. v30, n1 (Winter 1999): 3-19. If I find definitive answers while reading the article, I'll share them with readers of this blog.

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