Can Economics Fix Its Gender-Imbalance Problem? It’ll Take More Than Research, Women Say

Erin K. Fletcher, an economist with the global, nonprofit health-and-education organization Results for Development, feels so strongly about her field’s problem with sexism that she left academe.

Fletcher was one of many women who spoke out last week at the American Economic Association’s annual meeting, in Atlanta. One panel, “How Can Economics Solve Its Gender Problem?,” sparked a conference-wide conversation and drew an audience online.

“Frankly, it is safer to talk about those things when you aren’t looking for tenure,” she said.

She felt comfortable speaking about misogyny in economics after the release of Alice H. Wu’s report on the topic.

The report put a spotlight on an online forum, Economics Job Market Rumors, which discussed the subject of the shaming of female economists’ physical appearance. Fletcher found her way to the forum, only to leave after feeling attacked.

In “A Cesspool of Misogyny,” her 2017 blog post on life as a woman in economics, Fletcher cited personal evidence of the discipline’s sexism. Research on the subject cites bad practices but often fails to suggest appropriate behaviors, she said in an interview.

The problem goes beyond a panel discussion and posts in an online forum. Economists can use research to seek solutions to the field’s gender imbalance. But research can go only so far. Economists acknowledge that they also have to grapple with fixing the problems identified in their research. That’s the hard part.

‘Irrationality and Bias’

Now women in the field are asking out loud: What more can be done?

Many women feel that it’s past time. The conversation has snowballed for at least a year now. In 2018 the economic association committed to taking concerns about inequality more seriously.

“We find instances of irrationality and bias in other settings, but we are not able, as a discipline, to see that bias within economics,” said Anusha Chari, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

It’s difficult for scholars to welcome a critique of the field’s workplace culture, but that’s what is necessary to change the field, Fletcher said.

In 2016 and 2017 — following consistent growth in previous years — the percentage of tenure-track female professors in economics stayed at just above 20 percent, according to a 2017 report from the association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. The percentage of women among first-year Ph.D. students decreased at the same time.

The drop did not stem from a lack of interest in economics, Chari said. “It’s a culture issue. There are a lot of undergraduates who get put off by the culture in economics and the way that lectures are conducted.”

The male-dominated, “wolf-pack” culture leaks into the classroom, which, in turn, puts off women from pursuing a future in economics, Chari argued, adding that the field thrives on rigorous and open debate.

“Someone once said, ‘People who say they are brutally honest enjoy the brutality as much as they enjoy the honesty,’” she said.

Changing the culture from the bottom up is possible, Chari said. For example, microbiology as a discipline has made great strides in the advancement and equitable treatment of women. The proportion of all-male panels at microbiology conferences dropped more than 30 percentage points in just four years, according to a report from the American Society for Microbiology. Female speakers accounted for almost half of those at a society conference.

“Economics can’t hide behind this belief that women aren’t drawn to technical fields,” Chari said.

‘The Idea of Meritocracy’

The search for solutions through research has produced studies about setting behavioral expectations in the field and clarifying what “best practices” look like.

At the Atlanta conference, the gender-problem panel discussed research by Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University, on “blind” auditions in orchestras and how the same tactic could be adapted to change the hiring process by avoiding implicit bias.

Following such examples, Fletcher said, economists can use data to study workplace behavior. Ideally, she said, “we can go back to rewarding people for their work, and we can get back to the idea of meritocracy, as opposed to networks or giving people the power to torpedo someone’s career based on a relationship.”

There’s room for change at graduate seminars, too, she said. Many graduate students interact with their eventual colleagues for the first time at seminars. Setting expectations for what is acceptable — no interruptions, considering female perspectives in decisions, considering what is constructive criticism — can encourage women to stay in the field, Fletcher said.

She supports the addition of an ombudsman at the economics association, who would offer a safe space in the professional realm — away from institutions and departments.

“Best practices” are often found in-house, but leaders must be willing to allow people to speak out and assist in creating an accepting environment, said Susan Athey, an economics professor at Stanford University, in an interview.

“I’ve actually been thinking more that we could not just collect evidence, but collect best practices,” she said.

At the undergraduate level, “Diversity in the Economics Profession: A New Attack on an Old Problem,” a paper by the economists Amanda Bayer and Cecilia Elena Rouse, highlights poor teaching tactics — unreasonably aggressive critiques, strict lecture formats, showcasing only men’s research — that leave the field with a “self-selected” group of students with a prior interest or a background lacking diversity.

In 2013 one female student majored in economics for every three male students, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System — a proportion that hasn’t budged in more than 20 years.

Efforts like Harvard’s Undergraduate Women in Economics Challenge have tried to support women interested in the field. But many economists fear that those undergraduates, once encouraged, will hit a wall of bias without continued support as they proceed in their studies. That leaky pipeline, as it’s known, has produced a senior level dominated by men.

To combat isolation, the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession holds mentoring sessions. Fletcher said it has given women the opportunity to receive guidance from others in economics.

And Chapel Hill holds Women in Economics club meetings to connect students with professors, future mentors, and speakers.

Ambika Nair, a senior studying economics at George Washington University, said she had followed the conference discussion on Twitter for “virtual mentorship.”

“There was a lot of discussion about changing the culture of grad school, and that brought me a lot of encouragement,” she said, “because one of my fears was how to handle the culture there is in academia, and how that culture disproportionately affects women and minorities.”

Nair, like Fletcher, sees mentorship as a crucial step toward women’s success in economics.

“The first step,” Fletcher said, “is coming to a consensus on how to solve these problems.”

Follow Lily Jackson on Twitter at @lilygjack, or email her at lily.jackson@chronicle.com.