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Women in Economics

Why Should I Care?

Women have made important contributions to the field of Economics which may go unnoticed in a field dominated by men. We encourage you to learn about these wonderful women and their ideas.

This lesson has 4 parts

  • Nobel Winners
  • Women Economists in the World
  • Women Economists in Canada
  • Feminist Economics

Who are the Women in Economics?

Most economists happen to be men, as is the case for the author of this manual. This has implications for the discipline of economics, and the focus of research. It is important for students of all backgrounds to feel as though they can contribute to the field, and we would like to inform students of who these women were, and how important their contributions are to economics.

Please consider that not all women economists consider themselves to be feminist economists. Some of the people we present in this section were working on very conservative aspects of economic policy or theory, such as the brilliant Anna Schwartz, who was the co-author on Milton Friedman's famous book, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Some women economists fall into a gender analysis almost by accident. Consider Anke Becker, whose mastery of statistical analysis has allowed her to identify the root causes of patriarchy in religious history. Becker's main economic interest is a sub-field called 'econometrics', yet she has stumbled into some fascinating empirical results. Finally there are many women in economics who are acting to research and analyze aspects of economics that pertain to women directly, such as Marilyn Waring, whose famous book If Women Counted formed the foundation feminist economics.

Women are part of the economy, and their voice is important.

If you are interested in knowing more about women economists, consider this ranking of the top female economists in the world, by number of academic publications: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.women.html.

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  • Nobel Winners

There 61 women holders of a Nobel prize, of which only 2 in economics, which is awarded by the central bank of Sweden and called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

Esther Duflo Banerjee

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Photo credit: Kris Krug, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Duflo#/media/File:Esther_Duflo_-_Pop!Tech_2009_-_001_(cropped).jpg

French economist Esther Duflo teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and won the Nobel award in 2019 for her work in experimental approaches to alleviating global poverty. The award was also given to Abhijit Banerjee and Michael Kremer.

Elinor Ostrom

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Photo credit: Holger Motzkau, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom#/media/File:Nobel_Prize_2009-Press_Conference_KVA-30.jpg

 

Commons

Elinor Ostrom was a political scientist who in 2009 became the first-ever woman to receive the prestigious Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, along with economist Oliver Williamson.


  • Women Economists in the World

Joan Robinson

Monopolistic Competition


Janet Yellen

Fed chairwoman

chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018


Anna Schwartz

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Schwartz


Betsey Stevenson

Labour Economics

Bronwyn Hughes Hall

Innovation Economics


Anke Becker

Herding and Gender Roles


Marianna Mazzucatto

“The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies”

Kate Raworth

Doughnut Economics, Oxfam


Jane Jacobs

Urban innovation, Development, Ecological economics


  • Women Economists in Canada

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Sherry Cooper

Nicole M. Fortin

https://sites.google.com/view/nicole-m-fortin

 

Ruth Rose UQAM


Emanuela Cardia

UdeM

 

Margarida Duarte

UofT

 

Nora Traum

HEC

 

Margaret Emily Slade

UBC


Silvia Goncalves

McGill

  • Feminist Economics


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_economics


International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE)


https://www.feministeconomics.net/



References and Further Reading

Aligica, P. D. & Boettke, P. J. (2009). Challenging Institutional Analysis and Development: The Bloomington School 1st Edition. Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Challenging-Institutional-Analysis-and-Development-The-Bloomington-School/Aligica-Boettke/p/book/9780415778213

Friedman, M. & Schwartz, A. J. (1971). A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960. Princeton University Press.

Rochon, O. (2019). Ruth Rose, économiste au féminin. Revue vie économique, vol. 1, n. 4. https://iref.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2019/07/Hommage_Ruth_Rose.pdf

Waring, M. (1988). If Women Counted, A New Feminist Economics. Harper & Row.

 


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