Since 1972 the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession has regularly produced a comprehensive report on the status of women in the profession. Its first survey in 1972 provided important evidence of women’s under-representation in the economics discipline. Women represented 8.8 per cent of assistant professors but a mere 2.4 per cent of full professors. The annual survey now reaches 250 departments every year. Its 2016 report shows that despite the significant ground gained, women remain a minority in economics faculty, representing 13.1 per cent of professors and 25.6 per cent of associate professors with tenure. Women are disproportionately represented in non-permanent positions making up 35.3 per cent of non-tenure track faculty positions in doctoral departments of economics. Women’s employment vulnerability is evident among the top 20 economics departments where 39.8 per cent of non-tenure track faculty are women. The picture of women’s gains in the discipline become more complex when considering the underrepresentation of women in doctoral studies. Women make-up around one in three first year PhD candidates, with this share remaining broadly unchanged over the past two decades (Lundberg, 2017).
Figure 1. Distribution of academic appointments in economics departments with doctoral programs, US, by position and gender, 2016
Source Lundberg (2017), pp. 26
In her report on the 2017 survey, Lundberg (2018) noted that progress towards the goal of equal representation in US academic economics had largely stalled. Since 2005, women’s representation as Assistant Professors in PhD granting departments has not risen. While there has been an increasing share of baccalaureates going to women, the proportion of women in first year PhD classes has seen as slight decline in the last decade. There has also been stagnation at the entry Assistant Professor level which is now being reflected higher in the ranks with the proportion of women at the Associate level seeing no increase in the last few years.
In 2017, in departments with doctoral programs, women made up 28.8 per cent of Assistant Professors (untenured), 26.1 per cent of Associate Professors (untenured), 23 per cent of Associate Professors (tenured), and 13.9 per cent of Full Professors (tenured). Focusing on tenure, women held 20.1 per cent of all tenure track positions and 36.1 per cent of non-tenure track positions. In the Top 20 departments, women comprised 20.4 per cent of all faculty, which has almost doubled since 1993-6 when women made up 10.1 per cent of all faculty.
The 2018 report notes that women make up a larger share of all academic levels in non-doctoral departments compared with doctoral departments. In departments with doctoral programs, women comprise 23.5 per cent of all faculty, while in departments without doctoral programs women comprise 33.7 per cent of faculty. Women are relied upon to teach in both doctoral and non-doctoral programs, with women representing over 40 per cent of full-time non-tenure track faculty in doctoral departments and 38.3 per cent in non-doctoral departments. Accordingly, almost one third of the full time female faculty in Top 20 economics departments were in non-tenure track teaching positions. Looking across institutions, as departmental emphasis on research increased, women’s representation amongst faculty decreased. This is a particular issue, Lundberg writes, because 'it is the most research-intensive departments that train most future economists' (2018, p. 11).
Figure 2. Percentage of faculty in economics departments with doctoral programs who are women, US, by position and year, 1997, 2007, 2017
Source: Lundberg (2018, p. 7).
References
Shelly Lundberg (2018) The 2017 Report on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, American Economic Association.
Shelley Lundberg and Jenna Stearns (2018) Women in Economics: Stalled Progress. IZA Institute of Labor Economics Discussion Paper Series, IZA DP No. 11974.
Shelly Lundberg (2017) The 2016 Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, American Economic Association.