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ABSTRACT
This paper is the first to give a comprehensive overview of the various conditions that deter women from pursuing an economics major and that contribute to the low numbers of female students in undergraduate economics. Explanations for women’s underrepresentation in undergraduate economics include a lack of female role models and mentors; misperceptions and misinformation about the discipline; the social climate in economics (classes); the scarcity of same-gender peers; women’s relatively high grade-sensitivity; the stereotype threat that makes women doubt their academic performance; women’s (alleged or actual) discomfort with the math-heaviness associated with an economics major; economics’ relatively high use of abstract and theoretical models; and women’s belief that the subject matter does not relate to their own life experiences and interests. An important contribution of the paper is its review of interventions that have proven successful in attracting and retaining female students to the discipline of economics. The paper thus unravels the underlying structural mechanisms associated with female students refraining from pursuing a degree in economics and offers a review of innovative measures that have been shown to help economics practice greater gender inclusivity at the undergraduate level.
Acknowledgement
The authors are grateful for helpful comments from Sophie Augustin, Alexander Egginton, Carla Rainer, and two anonymous referees.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 We acknowledge that gender is not constrained to binary categories. Unfortunately, though, most of the literature reviewed in this paper refers to gender as ‘female’ and ‘male’ only. This lack of gender diversity in economics literature does not allow for the analysis of the representation of individuals who do not identify as female or male, an issue that future research must address more fully.
2 By URM, we refer to minority women who have been historically underrepresented in economics education, in the economics profession, and in the economy, including black or African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and Asians.
3 The assertion that women aren’t as skilled in math has been disproven among university-level students and students of economics (Arnold Citation2020; Lindberg et al. Citation2010). Tonin and Wahba (Citation2015) show that even young women who studied math before college were less likely than men to apply to study economics in the UK. The impact of being in the minority sex on the probability of studying economics is strongest for women with above-median math achievement, suggesting that the environment in the discipline plays more of a role than actual math ability (Shan Citation2020).
4 There are also initiatives in place to increase equality in representation and participation in economics but whose effects have not, or cannot, be measured. The Sadie Collective is one such example, established in 2018 to ‘address the pipeline and pathway problem for black women in economics, finance, data science, and policy’ (The Sadie Collective, Citationn.d.).
5 Avilova and Goldin (Citation2018) initially contacted 344 schools with information on the initiative and an invitation to apply; 48.5% of these schools replied. Avilova and Goldin narrowed these down to 88 schools (ranging from small state universities and liberal arts colleges to Ivy League schools) who they deemed eligible to receive support for their implementation of the challenge. From these 88, 20 were randomly selected to receive funding. In particular, the schools received up to $12,500 to implement a set of treatments and interventions.
6 The authors examined the instructors’ teaching and student assessment in the following undergraduate courses: ‘principles and pre-principles; intermediate theory; statistics, econometrics, or mathematical economics; and other upper-division field courses’ (Watts and Schaur Citation2011, p. 1).