Thread by @ingridharvold

The confidence of white male economists is incredible!

It may show up in a blog post - ironically and detrimentally ignoring ones own mistakes -as @DanielaGabor points out.

But the unchecked male confidence also shows up elsewhere, and sometimes it seems to be everywhere. 1/11

https://twitter.com/DanielaGabor/status/1038711766673489920

You see it at conferences, for example.

How many times have you not seen the female participant being cut off due to time, while the older male speaker on the same panel seem to have no time limit, even if they are just rambling on?

2/11

You see it in classrooms, conference dinners, receptions, round tables. Constant interruptions of women (and others) who try to contribute to the conversation.

This confidence - and rudeness - is prevalent in male dominated environments - such as Economics. 3/11

Unchecked male confidence is detrimental to Economics & society. It shuts down debate, stifles creativity, shuts out women. It's not conducive to an open environment for thought and inquiry by people from diverse backgrounds. So what is the problem & how can we solve it? 4/11

Needless to say, individual men or women are not the issue here. It's the institutional environment in Economics & patriarchy that lie at the root of the problem. Therefore it cannot be solved at the individual level, we need to change institutions, norms, structures. 5/11

Some ideas to change norms & rules in public sphere:
- All speakers get an equal amount of time.
- Female audience members prioritized in discussions
- No interruptions allowed
- Check ourselves & each other
- Give credit where credit is due

Additions welcome.

6/11

Notably, since unchecked male confidence is worst in male-dominated environments, we must ensure that women & minorities enter and stay in the field. There are many of barriers that keep them from advancing that we have to address... following are just a few examples 7/11

Examples of barriers to women and minorities in academia and in Economics:
- Sexual harrassment theguardian.com/world/2018/apr…
- Lack of encouragement ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25867167 see also

https://mobile.twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1037497390859776000

(HT @cacrisalves)
- The job market insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/2…
8/11

A few examples of barriers to women and minorities in academia and in Economics (continued):
- Unfair compensation timeshighereducation.com/news/first-gen…
- Lack of mentoring ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
- Excessive academic service researchgate.net/publication/25…
- Biased teaching evaluations
9/11

Examples of barriers to women and minorities in academia (cont.):
- Longer peer-review process insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/2…
- More difficult tenure process
- Less credit is given to work by women nytimes.com/2015/11/12/ups…
- Higher publication standards economist.com/graphic-detail…
10/11

So dealing with this issue is important to combat sexism, but also for academic rigor. Confidence is not a proxy for competence (see attached article, HT @cacrisalves). Dealing with this requires a complete overhaul of our field. Let's get started. 11/11 theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…