Tag Archives: women

Economics and its women problem

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It’s International Women’s Day and my Sunday newspaper has a big feature asking ‘Does Tech Have a Women problem?’ (bizarrely, for a tech supplement, not online). A question to which the answer is ‘Duh!’ Shockingly (for a social science), economics isn’t any better. Noah Smith forcefully pointed this out in a recent column.  In the UK, the Royal Economic Society is soon due to publish another report on the proportion of women at different levels in the academic hierarchy, but there’s no reason to think it will be better than the 2012 outcomes. My university is celebrating its women with a little film (including me, hmm) but I don’t think my department is any better than the norm for economics.

There’s no quick fix; it will take a mixture of encouraging female role models for young women economists and students (especially while still at school), making sure all-male panels don’t feature at conferences, raising the consciousness of hiring and promotion panels so they do not confuse “best candidate” with “male”, and so on.

Start today by reading some relevant economics books! I just read Katrine Marçal’s [amazon_link id=”1846275644″ target=”_blank” ]Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?[/amazon_link] (I’m reviewing it elsewhere) and although irritating in some if its generalizations about economics, it’s terrific about the role of women in the economy and economics, and is a short and enjoyable read. One of its central arguments is about the need to measure better (mainly) women’s unpaid work outside the market, not included in GDP, something also advocated in my [amazon_link id=”0691156794″ target=”_blank” ]GDP[/amazon_link]. As the chart below shows, the increase in the UK’s female economic activity rate during the past generation has been substantial (up from 55.5% to 72.4%) and it is extraordinary not to have regular data that make it possible to evaluate the consequences of switching between unpaid and marketed work.

UK female economic activity rate 1971-2014, source ONS

Jonathan Gershuny and his team gather time-use data to explore who does what in the non-market economy in the UK – a new survey is due to be published early in 2016. The database on their website has a bibliography of relevant publications covering time use data from around the world.

[amazon_image id=”B00TOLYFOS” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner?: A Story About Women and Economics[/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”1861342004″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Seven Years in the Lives of British Families: Evidence on the Dynamics of Social Change from the British Household Panel Survey[/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”B00MXDLPSI” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History by Coyle, Diane (2014) Hardcover[/amazon_image]

Recently I reviewed here [amazon_link id=”B00KAJJBYM” target=”_blank” ]Why Gender Matters in Economics[/amazon_link] by Mukesh Eswaran. Women younger than me are unlikely to have read Simone De Beauvoir’s [amazon_link id=”009974421X” target=”_blank” ]The Second Sex[/amazon_link] – it was all the rage among 1970s/80s vintage feminists. It’s a book that changed my life. Although far more about culture than about economics, it places huge emphasis on the vital need for economic autonomy for women. There is of course a Journal of Feminist Economics. Amartya Sen’s eye-opening article about missing women is 15 years old now. Nothing has changed. The attitudes in India to rape are shocking evidence of that.

[amazon_image id=”B00QASWUU4″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ][(Why Gender Matters in Economics)] [ By (author) Mukesh Eswaran ] [September, 2014][/amazon_image]  [amazon_image id=”0140034633″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Second Sex (Penguin Modern Classics)[/amazon_image]

It would be great to gather more reading suggestions – welcome in comments or via Twitter.

The Worldly Philosophers – the better half

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Yesterday’s post on the women problem in economics prompted a comment asking who would be included in a female version of Robert Heilbroner’s classic [amazon_link id=”0140290060″ target=”_blank” ]The Worldly Philosophers[/amazon_link]. A Twitter conversation later, here is my curated version of the suggestions.

Harriet Martineau

[amazon_image id=”0875802923″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Writings on Slavery and the American Civil War[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0253340713″ target=”_blank” ]Harriet Taylor[/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”0253333938″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Complete Works of Harriet Taylor Mill[/amazon_image]

Clara Collet

[amazon_image id=”1103312634″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Educated Working Women: Essays on the Economic Position of Women Workers in the Middle Classes[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0245545395″ target=”_blank” ]Rosa Luxembourg[/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”1931859361″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Essential Rosa Luxemburg: Reform or Revolution and the Mass Strike[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”0044408722″ target=”_blank” ]Beatrice Webb[/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”0521297311″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]My Apprenticeship[/amazon_image]

[amazon_link id=”1849664684″ target=”_blank” ]Barbara Wootton[/amazon_link]

[amazon_image id=”B002B5X2MK” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Social Science and Social Pathology [By] Barbara Wootton, Assisted by Vera G. Seal and Rosalind Chambers[/amazon_image]

Joan Robinson

[amazon_image id=”B00I70KLUY” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Accumulation of Capital (Palgrave Classics in Economics)[/amazon_image]

Phyllis Deane

[amazon_image id=”B00425W4WG” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The First Industrial Revolution. Second Edition.[/amazon_image]

Anna Schwartz

[amazon_image id=”0691137943″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Great Contraction, 1929-1933 (Princeton Classic Editions)[/amazon_image]

Elinor Ostrom

[amazon_image id=”0521405998″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)[/amazon_image]

There were also Twitter suggestions about women economists living and working now, including: Anne Kruger, Dambisa Moyo, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Emily Oster, Esther Duflo, Helene Rey, Deirdre McCloskey. But I can think of many others and I think a Worldly Philosophers-type collection would need to stop short of modern times. One needs a bit of hindsight to judge lasting influence, although I’m sure many of those on the list will qualify in time.

Economics and women

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Economics has a women problem. It’s obvious enough just looking at the talking econo-heads who appear on TV, but the data confirm the impression. Studies by the Women’s Committee of the Royal Economic Society have found that in academic research and employment, women are in a minority in economics departments, and the proportion declines the higher the level – women are under-represented as professors in particular. The latest report also finds a decline in the proportion of undergraduate economics students who are female (although numbers overall of economics students have been rising).

A new working paper (pdf) by Mirco Tonin and Jackline Wahba of the University of Southampton finds that the gender gap precedes university: despite the relatively high pay and the potential for an influential career offered by an economics degree, in the UK only 27% of students enrolling for economics degrees are female, compared to 57% of all students enrolling for university. (They use the UCAS data on acceptances for the 2008 round.) They find no evidence of universities discriminating against would-be female economists; the gap lies in the fact that girls are less likely to apply to do economics, even after controlling for individual characteristics, type of school and region. A large part, but not all, of the gap is due to the differences in girls’ A level choices at school, as they are less likely to have chosen maths and economics at 16.

The paper therefore urges better maths preparation for girls in high school, so that more of them choose to study it for longer. Some people, of course, would urge economics to become less mathematical, but I’m not one of them, although it should never be only about the mathematical models. In many ways, a more ‘real-world’ economics would need more proficiency – think, for example, about network theory, or the use of non-linear dynamic systems in macroeconomics.

The paper landed in my email in the wake of the arrival of a new book, [amazon_link id=”0691121737″ target=”_blank” ]Why Gender Matters in Economics[/amazon_link], by Mukesh Eswaran. It’s fascinating.

[amazon_image id=”0691121737″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Why Gender Matters in Economics[/amazon_image]

There are three sections, covering: whether women and men behave differently in economic situations (more or less altruistic, risk averse etc) and their power within households when it comes to economic decisions; gender in markets, which covers the labour and credit markets and globalization; and finally a section on the institution of marriage looking at questions such as access to birth control and fertility rates. It’s a non-technical book, having grown out of an undergraduate course. It discusses these questions in the setting of both poor and rich countries. Of course, it does not summarize all the empirical literature on these questions, but it gives readers the analytical tools to think about them, and enough of a flavour of the state of evidence on the answers.

The book ends on a sombre note, reporting the evidence of a decline in the subjective well-being of women, either absolutely or relative to men, in recent data for developed and developing countries.

We certainly need more women economists for its own sake – there is likely to be distortion in the questions addressed by any subject which is only a quarter female, and an odd sociology. To give just one example, the absence of data on unpaid work in the home makes it hard to evaluate lots of policy proposals concerning (paid) labour force participation; the economists and statisticians who concluded unpaid domestic labour should be outside the GDP production boundary were men.

Beyond this, though, Tonin and Wahba are right to say that a career in economics is potentially influential. Economists wield great influence over public policy, including policies affecting the lives, economic power and ultimately the well-being of women. There is lost ground to make up. Girls, women, brush up on the maths a bit if you need to, but above all come and study economics!

Guest review of Lean In

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This is a guest review by Ian Bright, @brighteconomist, of [amazon_link id=”0753541629″ target=”_blank” ]Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead[/amazon_link] by Sheryl Sandberg

Behind every good book there is a mountain of research. It would be a mistake to dismiss this short book’s discussion of the problems women face in reaching senior management positions in business and public life simply because its story-telling approach is not to your liking. Its style was not to my taste but I read on regardless, drawn in by the footnotes that chronicle important research and details. The book’s strength is in this research, which naturally appeals to the economist in me.

[amazon_image id=”0753541629″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead[/amazon_image]

There are 35 pages of small print footnotes accompanying 182 pages of text. These account for 19 per cent of the pages but add so much more of the content. I found myself continually flipping between the text and the notes. Anecdotes throughout are usually supported by academic research that indicates the problem is pervasive or that gives detail that would otherwise disturb the flow of the story being told.

Sandberg, currently Chief Operating Officer at Facebook, is one of the most senior and prominent women in global business. She holds a position of power and influence. It is appropriate that her stories provide the narrative for the text as they provide a way to shed light on the important issue of advancing women in the workplace and society. To her credit, she openly pays tribute to the contribution of Marianne Cooper, a sociologist at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, as the book’s lead researcher.

The book covers various issues such as the ambition gap displayed by women, the tension that can exist between success and likeability that can affect women particularly, the role of fathers/partners/families in child rearing and the role of mentors. Many issues are approached with an anecdote from Sandberg’s or a friend’s experience, but a close reader will be drawn to the footnotes for details.

The book’s title comes from the advice to “lean in” to tables when at meeting rather than to sit back or stay at the side of the room and therefore not participate. The advice to others – both men and women – in positions of management and power appears to be to provide the environment to allow more women to contribute. Even simple things such as ensuring toilets are available for women as well as men at meeting venues can play a part.

When story-telling to highlight an important topic, there can be a fine line between trivialising and getting the main message across. For some, this line will be crossed at times and they may be thinking “too much information”. For example, I would never ask a woman of a newly-born child “Do you need to pump?” But Sandberg notes that her writing partner, Nell Scovell, “was insistent that we keep searching until we found the right way to talk about these complicated and emotional issues.” Sandberg and Scovell are right. The issue of advancing women in the workplace is complicated and emotional. If it takes a story from a powerful woman to make the issues more accessible, acceptable and understandable, so be it.

For economists, there is an interesting insight into the working relationship between Sandberg and Larry Summers. Sandberg was a research officer for Summers when he was Chief Economist at the World Bank. Sandberg did not know how to use Lotus 1-2-3 (an early version of Excel spreadsheets) to complete a task. Her colleagues appear to have been amazed at her lack of knowledge and apparent unsuitability for the job she had been given. Summers took a different tack. He taught her how to use the software.

Further, for the economics profession this book has great relevance. Women are under-represented in the profession. This is generally accepted and even highlighted by Nobel laureate Robert Shiller in a tweet of March 1 referencing an article by Claudia Goldin titled “Will more of our daughters grow up to be economists?” (http://www.ohio.com/editorial/claudia-goldin-will-more-of-our-daughters-grow-up-to-be-economists-1.437694 ).

[amazon_link id=”0753541629″ target=”_blank” ]Lean In[/amazon_link] won’t provide all the answers but it provides a way to think about this issue and how it can affect your working and family life.

Intellectual fuel for modern feminists

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There is one welcome side-effect of the unspeakable online threats made to Caroline Criado-Perez over her successful campaign to get Jane Austen on the next £10 note. It is the realisation that feminists, male and female, still have a lot of work to do.

Over at the Teen Economists blog today Viva Avasthi has reviewed Virginia Woolf’s [amazon_link id=”0141183535″ target=”_blank” ]A Room of One’s Own[/amazon_link], still a timely essay. The classic feminist text that opened my eyes in the 1970s was Simone de Beauvoir’s [amazon_link id=”009974421X” target=”_blank” ]The Second Sex[/amazon_link].

Recently Sheryl Sandberg’s [amazon_link id=”0753541629″ target=”_blank” ]Lean In: Women, work and the will to lead[/amazon_link] has gained a lot of attention. It’s quite good but puts all the onus for improving women’s economic standing on their individual actions; it omits discussion of the institutional barriers women face to progress at work and in society.

Another fairly recent book, startling in its findings, is [amazon_link id=”069108940X” target=”_blank” ]Women Don’t Ask[/amazon_link] by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever. It reports research showing that part of the reason women’s pay is lower than that of comparable men is that, indeed, individual women need to ask for promotions and raises. The trouble is that when they do, they are disliked – it’s unfeminine, aggressive to put yourself forward, and male colleagues and bosses find other ways to punish women who do ask.

[amazon_image id=”069108940X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Women Don’t Ask: Negotiation and the Gender Divide[/amazon_image]

Other books include Arlie Hochschild’s [amazon_link id=”0143120336″ target=”_blank” ]The Second Shift [/amazon_link]on the burden of unpaid domestic work, especially childcare, on working women; and Susan Faludi’s [amazon_link id=”009922271X” target=”_blank” ]Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women[/amazon_link] – old now but the backlash seems fiercer still now; and of course other classics of the 70s and earlier such as [amazon_link id=”0007205015″ target=”_blank” ]The Female Eunuch[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”1860492827″ target=”_blank” ]The Women’s Room[/amazon_link], [amazon_link id=”0860680290″ target=”_blank” ]Sexual Politics[/amazon_link] etc.

There is of course also a large scholarly literature in economics on gender discrimination such as Claudia Goldin’s research, Heather Joshi‘s, Betsey Stevenson’s, and much more. Enough to know that it’s time to act again.