By Hannah Langlands (Associate Editor of Norwich Economic Papers)
It may seem an outdated idea in 2020 that there are still male-dominated disciplines, with the countless employment laws in place to prevent gender discrimination in the workplace; however the statistics speak for themselves when looking at female engagement in the study of economics. While other traditionally male-dominated disciplines such as STEM subjects have seen the number of females studying increase (up to 52% in the UK in 2018), there has been a steady decline in the number of women who study economics. These relationships are especially apparent in the UK, the US and Australia. A 2018 article from the Financial Times states how, in the UK, just over a third of economics undergraduates (including joint degrees) in 2018 were female: this is a very low proportion when you consider 57% of all UK undergraduates were female.
There are several reasons often given to attempt to explain this, however they are often discredited. The same Financial Times article mentions (and dismisses) a few examples: for instance, it is frequently suggested that the mathematical nature of economic is off-putting to girls. However, mathematics at both A Level and undergraduate level have a higher proportion of women studying, indicating that women have no issue with working with numbers. Additionally, economics is widely considered to suffer from an image problem: a quote from one female student states “if you think of an economist, you think of a rich man in a business suit”. This may be a common perception but in reality, there are many visible female economists today. The current president of the Royal Economic Society, managing director of the International Monetary Fund and the president of the European Central Bank are all women. In 2019, MIT’s Esther Duflo became the second female economist to win a Nobel Prize, for her work towards humanising the poor when attempting to alleviate global poverty. Many of these women have children alongside their careers, discrediting the argument that economics is a less family-friendly career path. Although unsociable hours are still a problem in some banking professions, there are many more economics jobs that promote flexible working and support women with families. The Government Economic Service even has a specific initiative for Women in Economics for supporting female employees and even targeting female students at careers fairs. This suggests that although things are changing in economics for the better, these changes are’’t being communicated to those who matter.
This decline is to such an extent that policy makers have turned to academic research to find a solution. Crawford, Davies and Smith (2018) found that the lack of women in economics is a market failure, since women are not only missing out on some of the highest paid careers (second only to medicine), but also a lack of diversity in policy making leads to worse outcomes. This creates a case for intervention. Their study found evidence, using a survey of 15-16 year olds, that not only do girls in secondary schools expect lower earnings from studying economics than boys, but they also placed less weight on future financial success. Female students overall placed more weight on contribution to society in their future career: this may suggest a lack of education on the direct way economics can impact policy and social issues.
An article only published several months ago placed even more blame with secondary education for not encouraging women from a younger age (Advani et al., 2019). Although economics A Level isn’t compulsory for any economics degree, the fact 70% of economics undergraduates have taken the A Level suggests that it is a significant factor. Looking at A Level figures, 1 in 6 boys take A Level economics versus only 1 in 17 girls: this increases to 1 in 4 boys across all-boys schools. Moreover, this gap is increasing, as economics A Level has grown in popularity with male students, however the female students opting for economics has remained fairly constant over the last 5 years. If economics begins as a male-dominated subject in schools, then it is no wonder that this continues into universities.
So what can be done to encourage engagement in economics from a younger age? Many schools and universities are already taking action, with multiple campaigns springing up such as Rethinking Economics and the Core Initiative at UCL, who aim at making economics more interesting and relevant to increase the appeal of the subject. At the University of East Anglia, the School of Economics has already taken direct action in setting up the Equality and Diversity in Economics committee (EDE) who meet monthly to directly discuss and create strategies to address diversity issues. Last year, the department achieved a bronze Athena Swan award, which recognises UK institutions’ commitment to gender equality and representation. To put this into context, while there are 231 science departments and 36 maths departments across the country with an Athena Swan award, only 6 economics departments (include UEA) hold an award. While this shows the scale of how much more there is to be done across the country to engage institutions in tackling inequality in economics, it is admirable that UEA have raised the benchmark for other economics departments – the School of Economics is currently working towards achieving the silver award.
One direct action the school has taken was to host the Women in Economics (WinECO) day last summer, where female students from year 10 to year 12 were invited to the University to learn more about economics and give them the opportunity to ask questions to numerous female economists. For a significant number, this was their first impression of economics, reinforcing the lack of economic awareness coming from secondary schools. Throughout the day, there were workshops, talks and a final Q&A session with the guest speakers, where the students could submit their questions in advance to hear answers from a range of speakers. The guests ranged from Sarah Smith, head of Economics at Bristol as well as Chair of the RES’s Women’s Committee (who co-authored the two academic articles mentioned earlier), a Bank of England economist, several alumni at the top of their fields, to current UEA economics students. Hearing different views on the opportunities available to women, and even just seeing the range of places that female economists can end up, was a profound and thought-provoking experience.
Hopefully, by continuing with outreach events to schools and boosting the profiles of inspirational female economists, the image of economics can be reshaped to reflect the relevance of the subject and the breadth of opportunities available to everyone, regardless of gender.
References/ Links
Advani A., Griffith R. and Smith S., 2019, Economics in the UK has a diversity problem that starts in schools and colleges, VoxEU CEPR Policy Portal, Available at: https://voxeu.org/article/increasing-diversity-uk-economics
Crawford C., Davies N. and Smith S., 2018, Why do so few women study economics? Evidence from England, Royal Economic Society
Government Economic Service, 2019, Women in Economics, Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/women-in-economics
Priluck J., 2019, Congratulations, Esther Duflo. The world needs more female economists, The Guardian, Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/16/congratulations-esther-duflo-female-economists
Tetlow G., 2018, Where are all the female economists?, The Financial Times, Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/0e5d27ba-2b61-11e8-9b4b-bc4b9f08f381
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