Thread by @SuriTavneet

Sad I missed #ASSA2019. Just finished watching the panel on solving gender issues in economics which I found both inspiring at times & depressing at times [sorry for a long thread]
@Susan_Athey #MarianneBertrand @skalemliozcan @BetseyStevenson #JanetYellen
aeaweb.org/webcasts/2019/…

Inspiring because we are finally having these discussions in economics especially after lots of data & evidence. Always find it stunning that as a profession we are so good at studying others but not ourselves (@Susan_Athey talks about this on the panel). Big thx to the panelists

Here are some egs of evidence (not exhaustive). First, @saskatchewin on how women get less credit for co-authoring. “Women however become less likely to receive tenure the more they coauthor. The result is most pronounced for women coauthoring with men”
scholar.harvard.edu/files/sarsons/…

Second, a paper by #DavidCard @sdellavi #PatriciaFunk #NagoreIriberri shows that referees & editors at leading journals set a higher quality bar for women authors... "resulting in a 7 pct pt lower probability of a R&R verdict for female authored papers"
eml.berkeley.edu/~sdellavi/wp/E…

Third, a paper by @erinhengel: “I find that women gradually adapt to tougher standards in peer review by writing more readably before it. Second, using data from Econometrica & ReStud, I show that female-authored papers spend 3–6 months longer in review”
erinhengel.com/research/publi…

Fourth @leah_boustan & #AndrewLangan: “wide & persistent variation in womens representation & success across graduate programs… depts w/ better outcomes also hire more women faculty, facilitate advisor-student contact, provide collegial research seminars"
scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/…

Depressing because of the stories of harassment. Depressing because some of the experiences the panel described are sadly sadly familiar. Sad when I heard @skalemliozcan say: “Talking to my female undergraduate & graduate students, they don't want to be in this profession”

Sad when I heard @Susan_Athey talk about the gender based disadvantages in power and being heard. Sad when I heard pretty much all the panelists talk about the aggressive culture and the subjectivity in the profession and how all this applies differentially to women and men

Something I have had many many discussions on recently with male colleagues across the profession was highlighted by @Susan_Athey when she talked about an all men's basketball game between graduate students & faculty which provided advantages (this motivated a paper of hers)

This theme came up again in the mentoring & advising discussion towards the end. #MarianneBertrand says “These football games and these bars and all these things kinda become really important in setting up these mentoring relationships”

All this was captured absolutely perfectly by #JanetYellen: “The nature of social networks, their [women’s] ability to participate in social networks that advance research, it isn’t the same as it is for men and it means that women have a harder time succeeding in the profession”

Finally, very inspiring because so many solutions were also discussed: awareness, data, evidence, calling things out, training, reporting systems (w/ anonymity), platforms to connect people, informal sanctions, setting up formal mentoring for students & many more! Time to act!!