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Changes in Women's Representation in Economics: New Data from the AEA Papers and Proceedings, Accessible Data

Figure 1. Women’s shares of economics degrees and representation in economics faculty, 1966-2020
Year New PhDs 1 New PhDs 2 Bachelors Degrees Associate professors Full professors
1966 4.3%        
1967 5.2%        
1968 4.7%        
1969 5.5%        
1970 5.4%        
1971 5.8%        
1972 5.8%        
1973 5.6%        
1974 7.7%        
1975 8.4%        
1976 9.3%        
1977 8.0%        
1978 10.2%        
1979 12.1%        
1980 12.5%        
1981 11.5%        
1982 12.8%        
1983 15.6%        
1984 16.1%        
1985 15.1%        
1986 17.8%        
1987 17.0%        
1988 19.6%        
1989 18.6%        
1990 19.9%        
1991 20.6%        
1992 20.8%        
1993 23.1%        
1994 22.6% 24.3%   13.9% 6.9%
1995   26.6% 30.6% 13.2% 6.1%
1996   24.0% 33.0% 13.3% 7.1%
1997   24.0% 32.5% 13.4% 6.9%
1998   28.6% 32.1% 14.5% 5.9%
1999   29.6% 30.7% 14.9% 5.9%
2000   31.1% 32.0% 15.4% 6.4%
2001   30.9% 32.7% 15.9% 6.9%
2002   29.5% 33.4% 17.1% 7.0%
2003   30.5% 32.8% 19.0% 7.0%
2004   28.9% 32.4% 20.0% 7.7%
2005   32.3% 31.7% 21.0% 7.9%
2006   33.5% 31.3% 20.2% 8.1%
2007   35.3% 30.2% 20.6% 8.3%
2008   34.9% 30.9% 21.9% 8.9%
2009   33.2% 30.3% 22.0% 9.4%
2010   33.6% 30.3% 22.4% 10.7%
2011   34.8% 30.7% 23.0% 11.4%
2012   32.8% 30.3% 22.4% 12.5%
2013   35.4% 32.1% 23.0% 10.9%
2014   32.7% 33.6% 23.2% 11.7%
2015   34.7% 33.2% 24.0% 12.1%
2016   31.1% 32.9% 25.3% 12.8%
2017   32.8% 34.0% 23.5% 12.5%
2018   32.1% 34.1% 26.0% 13.9%
2019   32.1% 33.4% 26.2% 14.2%
2020   34.7% 34.1% 27.4% 14.7%

Source: Chevalier (2020) for all series except New PhDs 1, which is from National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (2011).

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Figure 2. Average number of P&P contributors per year, by role
Period Authors Discussants Roundtable participants & addresses
1911-20 12 29 6
1921-30 10 11 20
1931-40 15 10 30
1941-50 36 31 14
1951-60 45 43 6
1961-70 54 42 2
1971-80 76 16 1
1981-90 102 1 1
1991-2000 133 0 1
2001-10 183 2 1
2011-20 278 0 1

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Figure 3. Average number of P&P contributors per year (left axis)and women as a share of all contributors (right axis)
Period Men Women Women's share
1911-20 46 1 1.7%
1921-30 39 1 2.7%
1931-40 54 1 2.4%
1941-50 79 2 2.3%
1951-60 91 3 2.9%
1961-70 96 2 1.9%
1971-80 86 7 7.3%
1981-90 92 12 11.2%
1991-2000 111 23 17.2%
2001-10 146 39 21.1%
2011-20 205 74 26.4%

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Figure 4. Average number of contributors by gender and session type (left axis), and women in CSWEP sessions as a share of all women (right axis)
Period Women in CSWEP sessions Women in regular sessions Men in both session types Women in CSWEP sessions as % of all women
1976-80 3 5 92 41.0%
1981-85 4 5 90 40.9%
1986-90 4 11 95 27.4%
1991-95 7 17 99 28.4%
1996-2000 8 14 122 36.8%
2001-05 9 22 128 29.9%
2006-10 14 34 164 28.8%
2011-15 11 49 195 18.5%
2016-20 14 72 216 16.6%

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Figure 5. Distribution of papers by number of authors per paper (left axis) and average number of authors per paper (right axis)
Period 1 coauthor 2 coauthors 3 coauthors 4+ coauthors Average number of authors per paper
1971-80 76.7% 20.4% 2.3% 0.5% 1.3%
1981-90 64.3% 30.0% 5.3% 0.4% 1.4%
1991-2000 54.1% 36.4% 7.4% 2.1% 1.6%
2001-10 29.0% 44.5% 20.2% 6.3% 2.1%
2011-20 18.6% 37.6% 28.6% 15.3% 2.5%

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Figure 6. Distribution of papers by number and gender of authors
Period 1 man 2+ men only 1 woman 2+ women only Mixed gender
1971-80 71.3% 20.3% 5.5% 0.5% 2.5%
1981-90 55.8% 29.3% 8.5% 1.0% 5.4%
1991-2000 45.1% 31.4% 8.9% 3.2% 11.3%
2001-10 24.0% 42.2% 5.0% 5.1% 23.7%
2011-20 13.3% 39.4% 5.3% 7.4% 34.6%

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Figure 7. Distribution of authors by the gender and author composition of the paper

Men

Period 1 man 2+ men only Mixed gender
1971-80 60.8% 36.8% 2.4%
1981-90 44.5% 50.3% 5.2%
1991-2000 34.4% 53.6% 11.9%
2001-10 14.8% 62.8% 22.4%
2011-20 7.3% 58.0% 34.7%

Women

Period 1 woman 2+ women Mixed gender
1971-80 58.9% 12.5% 28.6%
1981-90 52.1% 12.0% 35.9%
1991-2000 32.6% 23.9% 43.5%
2001-10 11.3% 26.2% 62.5%
2011-20 8.0% 26.6% 65.4%

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Figure 8. Distribution of authors by primary institutional affiliation
Period Top U.S. university Other U.S. universities and colleges U.S. Federal, state, & local gov't & Federal Reserve U.S. think tanks & research organizations Foreign & international institutions Other
1971-80 50.4% 26.3% 6.1% 6.8% 6.5% 4.0%
1981-90 48.5% 27.1% 5.2% 5.3% 8.7% 5.2%
1991-2000 46.4% 26.0% 5.8% 2.5% 16.9% 2.3%
2001-10 51.2% 23.5% 6.2% 2.6% 14.4% 2.1%
2011-20 45.2% 21.9% 6.7% 1.9% 22.2% 2.1%

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Figure 9. Distribution of authors, by gender and primary institutional affiliation

Men

Period Top U.S. university Other U.S. universities and colleges U.S. Federal, state, & local gov't & Federal Reserve U.S. think tanks & research organizations Foreign & international institutions Other
1971-80 52.4% 24.8% 5.3% 6.7% 7.1% 3.6%
1981-90 49.8% 25.5% 4.7% 5.5% 9.6% 4.9%
1991-2000 48.4% 23.8% 4.7% 2.1% 18.8% 2.3%
2001-10 54.0% 20.9% 5.4% 2.2% 15.6% 1.9%
2011-20 47.9% 18.1% 7.2% 1.5% 23.1% 2.2%

Women

Period Top U.S. university Other U.S. universities and colleges U.S. Federal, state & local gov't & Federal Reserve U.S. think tanks & research organizations Foreign & international institutions Other
1971-80 37.9% 34.5% 12.1% 5.2% 5.2% 5.2%
1981-90 36.8% 39.3% 9.4% 4.3% 2.6% 7.7%
1991-2000 36.5% 37.0% 11.3% 4.8% 7.8% 2.6%
2001-10 40.6% 33.2% 9.5% 4.4% 10.0% 2.3%
2011-20 37.9% 32.4% 5.4% 3.1% 19.4% 1.8%

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Figure 10. Distribution of papers by research field
Research Field 1971-80 1981-90 1991-2000 2001-10 2011-20
Economics profession & education 15.80% 9.60% 13.20% 7.20% 5.30%
Econometrics 3.60% 2.30% 2.00% 4.90% 11.10%
Microeconomics 12.60% 10.50% 10.60% 8.80% 13.70%
Macroeconomics, monetary, & finance 16.80% 20.90% 6.70% 17.20% 15.40%
International 12.90% 13.50% 24.00% 18.20% 12.50%
Public 6.40% 8.30% 9.80% 4.40% 1.80%
Labor 12.10% 14.90% 18.70% 15.90% 18.50%
Health & education 2.10% 3.10% 6.50% 9.10% 7.70%
Industrial organization 8.50% 12.20% 5.90% 10.00% 6.00%
Energy, environment, & urban 9.30% 4.50% 2.60% 4.40% 8.10%

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Figure 11. Distribution of authors, by gender and their paper’s research field

Men

Research Field 1971-80 1981-90 1991-2000 2001-10 2011-20
Economics profession & education 15.90% 9.10% 12.80% 7.80% 4.10%
Econometrics 4.10% 2.40% 2.80% 6.00% 14.70%
Microeconomics 12.00% 11.60% 11.60% 10.70% 15.20%
Macroeconomics, monetary, & finance 16.40% 21.90% 7.40% 18.70% 17.80%
International 13.00% 13.00% 24.30% 18.30% 12.40%
Public 6.70% 8.50% 10.10% 4.60% 2.10%
Labor 10.90% 11.30% 15.10% 10.40% 14.10%
Health & education 2.00% 3.70% 6.30% 8.30% 5.60%
Industrial organization 7.70% 13.20% 6.80% 9.70% 5.80%
Energy, environment, urban 11.30% 5.40% 2.80% 5.50% 8.10%

Women

Research Field 1971-80 1981-90 1991-2000 2001-10 2011-20
Economics profession & education 10.30% 7.70% 10.40% 5.40% 4.30%
Econometrics 8.60% 1.70% 1.30% 3.10% 6.60%
Microeconomics 12.10% 8.50% 3.00% 6.70% 11.00%
Macroeconomics, monetary, & finance 13.80% 6.00% 3.90% 10.30% 7.90%
International 10.30% 6.80% 14.30% 15.70% 13.80%
Public 0.00% 8.50% 8.70% 1.00% 1.40%
Labor 39.70% 47.00% 38.30% 30.10% 29.40%
Health & education 1.70% 4.30% 13.50% 14.70% 13.40%
Industrial organization 1.70% 7.70% 3.90% 9.80% 4.70%
Energy, environment, urban 1.70% 1.70% 2.60% 3.30% 7.30%

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Figure 12. Women as a share of all authors, by paper’s research field, 2011-20
Research Field Research Field
Macroeconomics, monetary, & finance 13.68%
Econometrics 13.96%
Public 18.87%
Microeconomics 20.61%
Industrial organization 22.58%
Energy, environment, & urban 24.55%
Economics profession & education 27.35%
International 28.65%
Labor 42.89%
Health & education 46.26%

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Last Update: August 06, 2021