Newsletter of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession Summer 2013 Published triennially by the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women Visit CSWEP.org in the Economics Profession Where are the Women Economics Majors? Introduction The Importance of Role Models by Cecilia Conrad page 3 by Amanda L. Griffith page 9 Notes on Women and the Economics Undergraduate Major Attracting More Women and Minorities into Economics by Claudia Goldin page 4 by Susan K. Feigenbaum page 11 An Undergraduate Major’s Perspective On Being the Other in the Classroom by Maria Boya Zhu page 7 by Lisa Saunders page 13 From the Chair CONTENTS This installment of Eckel Interview page 1, 17–19, 20 the Newsletter in- From the Chair page 1, 2, 17 cludes women at CSWEP Board, Directory page 2 all stages of their Feature Articles: economics careers. Women Econ. Majors pages 3–16 For that is what The Committee on Bell Award Nominations Sought page 15 the Status of Women in the Econom- 2012 Carolyn Shaw Bell page 20 ics Profession (CSWEP) is about: Brag Box Award Winner the championing and mentoring Top Ten Tips page 21 of women economists at every life CSWEP Sponsored Sessions Interview with Catherine C. Eckel, the phase—nurturing women embark- at the WEA Meeting page 22 Sara and John Lindsey Professor of ing on their undergraduate major, Calls for Papers and Abstracts page 22–23 Economics at Texas A&M University applauding women at the height of Session Summaries available online By Elizabeth Hoffman, Iowa State their careers, and celebrating the life Upcoming Regional University and work of colleagues who are no Meetings back cover Catherine Eckel has been a leader in longer with us. experimental economics for sever- Exploring the Undergraduate al decades. Working with many col- Gender Gap TOP TEN TIPS laborators including students as well The feature section in this edition of ON HOSTING A as faculty and supported by numer- the Newsletter—exploring the gender ous grants, her experimental stud- gap in the undergraduate econom- VISITING ies cover a wide array of topics and ics major—resulted from a happy co- SPEAKER appear in prestigious academic jour- incidence. Back in January, CSWEP PLEASE SEE PAGE 21 nals. Professor Eckel has served as a continued on page 2 continued on page 17 Letter from the Chair continued from page 1 DIRECTORY OF CSWEP BOARD MEMBERS Newsletter Co-editor Cecilia Conrad settled on this topic and Marjorie McElroy, Serena Ng, at-large Chair Professor of Economics began soliciting articles. Quite independently, American Eco- Professor of Economics Columbia University nomic Association (AEA) President Claudia Goldin was work- Duke University 1012 International Affairs ing on Notes on Women and the Economics Undergraduate Major, Durham, NC 27708-0097 Building (919) 660-1840 420 W. 118th Street an effort to document the gap and delve into causal factors as Fax: (919) 684-8974 New York, NY 10027 preliminary work to figuring out what can be done. Fortunately, [email protected] (212) 854-5488 each became acquainted with the other’s efforts in time for this Fax: (212) 854-8059 Cecilia Conrad, at-large [email protected] Newsletter. As Goldin discusses, the gap is the differential loss Vice President, MacArthur Fellows to the economics major of female majors as a fraction of female Program Petra Todd, at-large Bachelor of Arts (BA) candidates when compared to male ma- 140 S. Dearborn Street Professor of Economics Chicago, IL 60603-5285 University of Pennsylvania jors as a fraction of male BA candidates—a gap that is growing (312) 726-8000 3718 Locust Walk, McNeil 160 despite the relative number of female to male BAs. Fax: (312) 920-6258 Philadelphia, PA 19104 I encourage you to read the entire set of articles whose au- [email protected] (215) 898-4084 Fax: (215) 573-2057 thors span the discipline’s career phases: from Maria Boya Zhu, Linda Goldberg, at-large [email protected] winner of a NSF Graduate Fellowship, who will soon begin Vice President of International her graduate studies at Duke University, to Amanda Griffith, Research Shelly White-Means, International Research Function Southern Representative an assistant professor at Wake Forest University, to Susan Fei- Federal Reserve Bank of New York Professor of Economics genbaum and Lisa Saunders, professors at the University of 33 Liberty Street University of Tennessee Missouri–St. Louis and University of Massachusetts Amherst, New York, NY 10045 Suite 205N Johnson Building (212) 720-2836 847 Monroe Avenue respectively, to AEA President Claudia Goldin. They ask the dif- Fax: (212) 720-6831 Memphis, TN 38163 ficult questions and provide insights on a topic of great, even [email protected] (901) 448-7666 grave import to the future of women in the economics profes- Fax: (901) 448-1640 Jennifer Imazeki, [email protected] sion. After reading, I ask you then, as Goldin suggests, to go one Western Representative step further and join the discussion: http://www.aeaweb.org/ Professor of Economics Anne Winkler, to/gold. San Diego State University Midwestern Representative 5500 Campanile Drive Professor of Economics In Memoriam San Diego, CA 92182-4485 University of Missouri–St. Louis (619) 594-5012 One University Boulevard Following Anna J. Schwartz’s death in June of 2012, CSWEP Fax: (619) 594-5012 St. Louis, MO 63121 ran a short obituary in this Newsletter, focusing mainly on her [email protected] (314) 516-5563 well-known co-authorship with Milton Friedman of the 1963 Fax: (314) 516-5352 Kevin Lang, at-large classic treatise, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867– [email protected] Professor of Economics 1960. In April 2013, the National Bureau of Economic Research Boston University, Room 302A Madeline Zavodny, (NBER) hosted a memorial service. Those assembled included Boston, MA 02215 Newsletter Oversight (617) 353-5694 Editor many recognized leaders in monetary economics. The testimo- Fax: (617) 353-4449 Professor of Economics nies given spoke to the quality and power of Schwartz’s eco- [email protected] Agnes Scott College nomics, to her influence on policy and to her inspiration as a Terra McKinnish, CeMENT 141 E. College Avenue Decatur, GA 30030 role model for women. I was fortunate to attend and came away Organizer with a desire to preserve Schwartz’s legacy. Sharing my enthu- Associate Professor of Economics (404) 471-6377 University of Colorado Fax: (404) 471-5478 siasm, NBER President James Poterba agreed that the CSWEP Boulder, CO 80309 [email protected] Newsletter was the appropriate publication venue. Hence our (303) 492-6770 Fall 2013 Newsletter will feature an introduction by Poterba and Fax: (303) 492-8960 [email protected] the Schwartz Memorial talks given by Michael Bordo, Mar- tin Feldstein, Alan Greenspan, Allan Meltzer, Edward Nelson, Amalia Miller, Eastern NEWSLETTER STAFF Representative Eloise Pasachoff, William Poole and Christina Romer. Marjorie McElroy, Editor Associate Professor of Economics It is with sadness that I also share the news of the recent P.O. Box 400182 Cecilia Conrad, Co-editor passing of Marianne A. Ferber, Emerita Professor of Econom- Charlottesville, VA 22904-4182 Madeline Zavodny, Oversight (434) 924-6750 Editor ics and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana– Fax: (434) 982-2904 Jennifer Socey, Assistant Editor Champaign. Ferber was a founding feminist economist whose [email protected] Leda Black, Graphic Designer contributions to the literature and institutions of the field con- tinue to resonate. Her research interests began with a study (in continued on page 17 2 CSWEP Newsletter Summer 2013 Feature Articles Where are the Women Economics Majors? By Cecilia Conrad, MacArthur Foundation his issue of the CSWEP newsletter explores why the economics major is less popular among undergraduate women than it is among undergradu- Tate men. In her introductory essay, Claudia Goldin, professor of economics at Harvard University and president of the American Economic Association, ob- serves that economics is doing a poor job of attracting the most numerous and fastest-growing segment of the undergraduate population: women. As a result, the fraction of all Bachelor of Arts candi- Recent empirical findings suggest that we may dates majoring in economics has not budged much want to take a closer look at peer effects and the over the past decade. She closes with an invitation to classroom environment as factors affecting the pop- newsletter readers to contribute feedback: “So talk to ularity of the major among women. For example, your undergraduates, especially those who are mak- Elizabeth Jensen and Ann Owens (American Eco- ing choices about their major.” I took this invitation nomic Review, May 2000), using data from a liber- to heart and asked one of my former students, Ma- al arts college, find that the effect of devoting class ria Boya Zhu, Pomona College ’13, to offer her per- time to group problem solving depends on the gen- spective. Her personal narrative is the second article der composition of the class. An increase in class in this issue. Maria discusses misconceptions of the time devoted to group problem solving leads wom- field, the absence of a critical mass of women and en to rate economics as more relevant when the the dryness of course content as obstacles to major- percentage of females in the class is relatively high ing in economics—but she persisted and will start (above 48 percent) but leads women to rate eco- in the doctoral program at Duke in the fall. The third nomics as less relevant if the percentage of females contributor is Amanda Griffith, professor of eco- in the class is low. The opposite is true for male stu- nomics at Wake Forest University.