Betsey Stevenson on gender and economics: we’re no longer discussing *whether* there’s a problem with women and economics, but how to solve it. Economics has stalled—even seen declining progress—with women entering and rising in the profession over the last 2 decades. #ASSA2019
Sebnem Kalemil-Oscan and Betsey Stevenson both highlight an issue where female economists and students are cut-off by men when speaking, experience male aggressiveness, and are not shown the same respect. They believe this discourages women. #ASSA2019
Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen says aggressiveness in economic seminars discourages women from entering economics. She cites research that suggests women don’t thrive in hyper-competitive environments. They prefer collaboration. #assa2019
Stanford’s Susan Athey recalls in grad school that her male colleagues all played on a basketball team and that that helped them secure better posts. #assa2019
Janet Yellen: It’s been difficult to convince male economists that this has been a problem because they’ve believed they’re rational and the field is meritocratic. She thinks new research is helping to change this. #assa2019
Yellen highlights the power of implicit bias amongst men and women. She believes this is a big force behind this problem. #ASSA2019
Susan Athey, one of the top economists (female or male), admits that even she feels it’s risky and hard to bring up anecdotal stories of sexism in economic departments. She thinks we need to arm women with strong data and more empirical evidence to truly change things. #ASSA2019
Jeez. Stevenson highlights a story of a woman getting sexually assaulted by another economist on a flight on the way home from last year’s ASSA meeting.
Susan Athey, who works in Silicon Valley, highlights that it was only recently that the venture capital community decided that it was inappropriate to make sexual advances on entrepreneurs pitching their ideas! #ASSA2019
Betsey Stevenson mockingly brings up an idea she’s heard in econ circles: maybe women are advantaged because they can use sex as tool for career advancement. She then asks whether the tools of economics are failing us when it comes to understanding workplace sexism #assa2019
