Ann Mari May
Executive Vice President and Treasurer, IAFFE
Professor of Economics
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588 amay1@unl.edu

IMF / World Bank Spring Meeting, 2014

• In December of 2014, The Economist printed names of top 25 most influential economists in the world
• Not a single woman was on the list
• (Janet Yellen might have been considered, but they excluded those individuals with current government positions.)

• Might induce us to imagine that not much has changed in the past 30 years…
• Perhaps more correct to point out that much has changed… there is still much work to do!

• How things have changed…
• How some things remain unchanged…
• And what we can do to improve economic decision-making and provide for more inclusive economic policy

• Women have made great strides in education in the last thirty years
• UNESCO reports that women’s share of enrollment in higher education increased significantly
• By 2013 women’s share of enrollment in higher education stood at:
– 55% in France
– 57% in Thailand
– 47% in Germany
– 60% in Argentina and in Sweden
– 57% in the US

• Women earn the majority of doctoral degrees in the US since 2009
• In Nordic and Baltic region, women receive
45% of doctoral degrees
• In China, the country now offering the largest number of doctoral degrees, women receive
35% of doctoral degrees

• The share of women in doctoral programmes overall has grown over last decade
• Although still less likely than men to earn doctorate…
• On average in OECD countries, women received 46% of doctorates in 2012 – up from
38% in 2000

Despite increase of women receiving doctoral degrees, not seen a proportional increase in women as faculty

• The Global Gender Index report (Times Higher
Education) highlights glaring disparity in ratio of male to female academics in nearly all countries assessed
• Japan widest gender gap, where women make up just
13% of academics at top universities
• Followed by Taiwan at 21% at its top universities
• UK showed women make up 35%
• …while the US 36% of its faculty were women

• While women accepted more on par with men as consumers of higher education, fail to benefit in terms of outcomes
• Continue to be marginalized and excluded as colleagues or writers of the canon– particularly at research institutions

• Some countries such as Sweden, Canada and Norway have implemented programs to increase representation of women faculty
• Programs aimed at increasing women’s participation have met with resistance
• In 1995 the Government in Sweden created 32 posts at full professor level for women
• EU Supreme Ct, after complaints, turned down the
“Tham Professorships” creating research positions for women

“We have experienced stronger and more sophisticated resistance than we had expected.
Vigilance and additional resources are necessary in order to increase female recruitment, and to integrate female perspectives and interests more effectively in academic life”
Ms. Tove Beate Pedersen,
Head of Secretariat for Women’s Studies in the
Research Council

• In 2011, 34% of undergraduate majors in economics were women
• In 2012, 28% of Assistant Professors were women in
Economics
• In 2012, 22% of Associate professors were women in
Economics
• In 2012, only 12% of Full Professors were women in in
Economics

The world has changed... economics departments, not as much
Columbia University, Dept of Economics, 2005

• AEA… 3 women presidents in 117 year history
• 2014 first woman appointed Federal Reserve
Board Chair!!! Janet Yellen
• Of 20 Chairs of the CEA, only 3 women
• Women only 5% Governors World Bank

• 2009 first year woman won Nobel Prize in Economics –
Elinor Ostrom
• Increasing numbers of women are entering economics and what constitutes knowledge in the discipline is changing
• Male and female economists do work on gender and former boundaries of the discipline that excluded gender are disappearing
• Many of the studies that are part of this conference are testimony to the rich diversity of approaches and topics on gender in economics
• Economic Man is changing….

• An increasingly international scope to economics has enlarged the debate to include those whose voices are rarely heard
• Expanded debate sought to nurture an economics that focuses on human well-being and human development (not just economic development ) for the broad spectrum of the world ’ s people
• Economic models increasingly examine the complexity of human behavior through a wide variety of methodological approaches
• Unpaid labor is more visible along with the varying realities of paid work and the boundaries of paid and unpaid labor are examined
• The expansion of transnational markets increasingly examined for its impact on lives and livelihoods not just its impact on economic growth

• The gender division of labor in care is changing
• It is difficult to renegotiate but is part of a social contract that is changing in countries throughout the world
• The provision of caring labor has to be part of the discussion of the changing work force

• No area of study, no discipline that has not touched
• Feminist philosophers have been asking why it is that some knowledge is ignored while other knowledge is remembered?
• Epistemology of knowledge, epistemology of ignorance

• If it is important to examine how knowledge is created, it must also be important to understand how ignorance is perpetuated
• What social and cultural and perhaps even biological factors allow certain “ knowledge ” to perpetuate itself, even when it is shown to be incorrect?
• Epistemology of ignorance allows us to think about how scientists and populations choose what “ facts ” to accept

• There are gaps in our cultural knowledge about women’s intellectual abilities that empirical evidence seems unable to fill
• False “ knowledge ” exists because it seems true and retains currency because it coheres with the ways that both men and women expect the world to be
• There are costs to institutions for acknowledging that employment patterns may not be based upon intrinsic differences between men and women

• Keeping these hypotheses in play not only coheres with powerful stereotypes, but also maintains gender inequalities inside and outside universities
• It further reduces the intellectual authority that women can claim when they fight these stereotypes
• But the world is changing…

World Development Report 2012:
Gender Equality and Development
• The World Bank made priority of gender equality
• Significant progress women throughout the world in past 25 years
– Progress in education
– Access to jobs and livelihoods
• Sizable gaps remain

• 4 million women are “ missing ” every year:
• 2/5 of girls are never born due to “ son preference ”
• 1/6 die in infancy and early childhood (sanitation)
• Over 1/3 of women die in their reproductive years
• Globally, 40% of workers are women; however, women make less than men
• 20% less in Mexico ; 40% less in Germany; 40% less in India

• Globally, the majority of farmers are women… yet, only
10-20 of every 100 landowners is a woman
• Globally, women are responsible for 60-80% of all home and care workers
• Closing these gaps is a core development objective
• World Bank has stated that gender equality is smart economics

• “Fair Play, More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor
Force Participation”
• Gender equality makes economic sense... Gender equality in laws boosts labor force participation rates, bringing economic growth
• Opportunity for women to earn and control income is associated with broader economic
development and total factor productivity gains

There is growing awareness of the importance of gender equity not only for issues of fairness… but for addressing issues of economic performance and outcomes

• Recent Report by Credit Suisse Research Institute shows that companies with female boards of directors routinely outperform competitors whose boards include no women
• Katherine Phillips of Columbia University (2011) find that greater diversity in teams induces members to prepare more in exercises than if teams are homogeneous
• A wider range of alternatives are likely to be debated in a diverse group
• Diversity encourages the majority to think more critically about their own views

• In 1992 the International
Association for Feminist
Economics (IAFFE) was born
• Organization dedicated to furthering gender-aware and inclusive economic inquiry and policy analysis with the goal of enhancing the well-being of children, women, and men in local, national, and transnational communities

• By opening new areas of economic inquiry, welcoming diverse voices, and encouraging critical exchanges, IAFFE provides space for much needed theoretical perspectives and advances in gender-based research on contemporary economic issues
• Organization with about 500 members throughout the world
• We hope that you find a place in IAFFE to support your research and advocacy and help to improve policy throughout the world