Economics is in need of a sexual revolution – and with feminism on the rise, now is the time to push for one.

We’re all aware of the gaping gender gap in the Stem subjects – science, technology, engineering and maths. But this isn’t the only academic discipline failing to attract women: the same problem is also plaguing economics. Up until now, it’s received little attention.



You might think that the gender gap in economics isn’t as important. After all, it is the scientific world that creates our future – affecting life expectancy, engineering new products and developing technologies that influence work and wages. Unless Stem subjects can harness female talent, the future will shine only half as bright.

But, through the policies they recommend, economists also have a major influence on our lives. Nothing demonstrates this more than the recent financial crisis and global recession, something that has been blamed on flawed economic policies – policies that were born of a subject with a serious sex problem.

Let’s face it, most economists are male. Of all the Nobel prizes awarded for economics, only one has gone to a woman, Elinor Ostrom. Here in Cambridge, in line with other UK universities, only a quarter of academic economists are female. Girls account for one in four UK degree students studying economics, a disparity that results from too few girls actually applying.

This lack of female applicants can partly be explained by the fact that fewer girls than boys study maths at A-level. As with many Stem subjects, maths is now a common entry requirement for an economics degree. But maths is only part of the story. Looking at the gender make-up of A-level economics classes, it’s clear that the subject is turning girls off at a young age: females make up only a third of A-level economics students.

Gender imbalance has inevitably resulted in economists tending to look at the world through male eyes. The questions economists seek to answer, the tools they use to help find the answers (that’s principally maths, rather than the applied topics that research suggests women are drawn to), the standard assumptions they make along the way (that people are emotionless, free and selfish), and the things they choose to measure all reflect a traditional and stereotypical male way of looking at the world.

In turn, so do the economic policies that affect the lives of every single one of us. Revealingly, a recent survey has shown that an economist’s gender has a significant effect on their views about minimum wages, health policy and labour standards, with female economists tending to take a more left-leaning stance. A lack of female economists is, therefore, limiting debate, meaning a more rigid and less open discipline.



It is hardly surprising that the market has been placed on a pedestal and that life outside of these cold financially-driven markets has been largely ignored by economists, including activities without which the economy and society could not function. It is also unsurprising that the “upsides” of state interventions, many of which can have a particularly strong effect on women’s lives, have received little attention relative to the much trumpeted “downsides”. With it, the welfare state has come to be demonised and women have suffered the consequences, as the feminist direct action group Sisters Uncut has made clear.

Not only have economists’ models and policy recommendations suffered from gender bias, so has economists’ interpretation of the past – of what has made the western economy successful. History suggests that women’s choices about work, fertility and home were just as important for the rise of the West as the much more famous (and largely male) inventors and entrepreneurs.



By neglecting gender, many economists are blind to the potential which female empowerment can offer to struggling economies today – whether rich or poor. As I argued recently at the Institute of Directors and the Legatum Institute, whether it is slow growth, deflation, poor productivity performance, stagnant wages, inequality or political battles about immigration, the problems Europe currently faces are rooted in what I would call a global sex problem – a lack of female empowerment in poorer countries which, with the onset of globalisation, has had serious side-effects on the West. Unsurprisingly, the lack of women in economics has done little to shed light on this problem.

Take the example of a recent and much-respected book on the challenges facing the Western economy: not a single one of the 21 contributors was female and gender did not receive a mention.

Worryingly, the situation is not improving. The percentage of girls studying economics has been going down rather than up. We are caught in a vicious circle in which male-dominated thinking has put off girls, thereby perpetuating the problem. It’s for this reason that I have initiated a “Women in Economics” Day at Cambridge, to be hosted at Gonville and Caius College this coming September, at which we will welcome 16-18 year-old girls from across the UK.

I call upon every single university that has not yet done so to introduce similar initiatives. If we can attract more girls into the discipline, not only will women benefit, but so will the wider economy – and that includes men.

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