Objectives

Women are underrepresented at all stages of the economics profession.

• The share of women earning a BA in economics is decreasing (it is roughly 1/3).
• The share of women entering PhD programs has stayed at 30% for the past 20+ years.
• Compared with men, women disproportionately fall off the academic ladder at every step, from job market placement in tenure track jobs to tenure and promotion.
• The share of women who are full professors is increasing extremely slowly – it is still less than 15%.

One strategy to increase the number of women in economics is to encourage mentoring relationships between female students and female faculty members. To that effect, MU Graduate Women in Economics group (MU-GWE) was founded.

The mission of MU-GWE is to unite female students who study economics at the University of Missouri in any capacity, and to improve their university experience through social events and professional development. As of now the group consists of 7 female PhD students and 8 female faculty members.

Social Activities

MU-GWE has held a variety of social events. Here are some of the highlights.

• Our very first meeting was held at Shakespeare’s Pizza in September 2019.
• In 2019/2020, we did yoga at Moon Yoga and worked out at Rho Engine Room.
• We went virtual in 2020/2021. One of our events was a Zoom talk with a University of Missouri alumni Deb Lindner, Principal Economist at Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
• In 2021/2022, we threw axes at The Axe House Columbia and climbed high ropes at Venture Out (see full story).
• In Fall 2022, we painted ceramics at The Mud Room and hiked at Rockbridge State Park.

Interested in joining us?

Want to learn more? Have news or resources to share? Contact Dr. Oksana Loginova, the faculty advisor of MU-GWE, via email loginovao@missouri.edu.

Resources

1. Macromom blog by Claudia Sahm

   Claudia has been an active promoter of women in economics through her career. Once you click on a topic, the essay appears below, but you won’t see it unless you scroll down. Each essay is short and up to the point. Click and read each one of them. You will not regret it!

2. Women in Academia

   On this web-page, Anna Goeddeke and Louisa Söllner state common gender stereotypes such as “academia is hard and competitive – and women just don’t have the stamina,” “women just need to act like men to succeed in academia – and don’t be such feminine,” or “women don’t want an academic career – they have other preferences.” The authors list abstracts of the research papers investigating these stereotypes, and also present a section on “what works.”

3. Diversity in the Economics Profession: A New Attack on an Old Problem, by Amanda Bayer and Cecilia Elena Rouse, Journal of Economic Perspectives

   The authors present data on the numbers of women and underrepresented minority groups in the economics profession, offer an overview of current research on the reasons for the underrepresentation, and propose remedial interventions as well as findings on effectiveness.

4. Please, listen to us: What it’s like being female at America’s biggest economic conference, by Heather long, The Washington Post

   Heather Long, an economics correspondent of a major news outlet, describes her experiences at the annual conference of the American Economic Association.

5. Committee on Status of Women in Economic Profession (CSWEP)

   CSWEP is a committee of the American Economic Association charged with promoting the careers and monitoring the progress of women economists in academia, government agencies and elsewhere.

6. Gendered Language on the Economics Job Market Rumors Forum, by Alice Wu, AEA Papers and Proceedings

   Alice Wu examines the existence of an unwelcoming or stereotypical culture using evidence on how women and men are portrayed in anonymous discussions on the Economics Job Market Rumors forum.