Women in Economics: Moving Up or Falling Off the Academic Career Ladder?

摘要

The percentage of economics doctorates awarded to women increased from 8.7 percent in 1974 to 26.9 percent in 2000, according to data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Survey of Earned Doctorates. This article considers whether the corresponding increases of women economists that one might expect as women move up the academic career ladder have occurred. A number of studies based on data through the 1980s find that women economists are less likely to be promoted to tenure than men (Kahn, 1993; Broder, 1993; McDowell, Singell and Ziliak, 1999, 2001) and that these differences are not fully explained by observable characteristics. Other recent studies on Sweden and the United Kingdom find that women are underrepresented in tenured academic ranks in economics there (Persson, 2002; Booth, Frank and Blackaby, 2002). However, relatively little is known about women economists' academic employment outcomes in the United States during the most recent decade. Our study draws upon several empirical approaches and multiple data sets for the 1990s. We find that when compared with other academic disciplines, women in economics are less likely to get tenure and take longer to achieve it. Although gender differences in productivity and the effect of children on promotion partly explain women's lesser chances of receiving tenure in economics, a significant portion of the gender promotion gap remains unexplained by observable characteristics.