Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a groundbreaking account of the role of women during the formative years of American economics. Blending rich historical detail with extensive empirical data, Ann Mari May examines the structural and institutional factors that excluded women, from graduate education to academic publishing to university hiring practices.
Trade ReviewBravo to Ann Mari May for recovering and assembling novel data sets to buttress
Gender and the Dismal Science's persuasive narrative of the experience of women—both black and white—in the early days of the profession and the construction of the field as a quintessential “old boy network.” -- Cecilia Conrad, Pomona College
In
Gender and the Dismal Science, Ann Mari May confronts the contemporary challenge posed by the masculinist nature of the economics profession in the U.S. by offering its history. The result is an incisive, well-documented, and thoroughly readable account of the educational opportunities and professional experiences of women economists in the U.S. -- Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, author of
Alma Mater: Design and Experience in the Women's Colleges from Their Nineteenth-Century Beginnings to the 1930sGender and the Dismal Science combines careful archival research, innovative empirical work, and a compelling narrative to tell the story of the barriers that women economists have faced since the birth of the field. With an accessible and compelling voice, May ensures this history of the hidden half can now be seen. -- Justin Wolfers, coauthor of
Principles of EconomicsTackling the issue from a modern and historical perspective, Ann Mari May reflects back on the historical and institutional trends, choices, rules, and behaviors that shaped the economics discipline in the first half of the twentieth century. Frankly, I don’t know anyone else who could do a better job. -- Marianne Johnson, secretary of the History of Economics Society
A rich historical narrative on the long-standing sources of such gender gaps. * Finance and Development *
By examining the early days of the profession, May sheds light on some roots of the issue...Recommended. * Choice *
This book makes for an excellent feminist reading of the evolution of economics. * LSE Review of Books *
Table of ContentsPreface
1. Current Challenges, Historical Origins
2. The Political Economy of Gender in the Halls of Ivy
3. A Liminal Space: Graduate Training in the Dismal Science
4. A Membership Beyond the Professoriate
5. A Natural Constituency
6. The Trade in Words: Gender and the Monograph
7. Trouble in the Inaugural Issue of the
American Economic Review: The Monograph and the Review
8. Gender, the Old Boy Network, and the Scholarly Journal
9. Not a Free Market: Women’s Employment After the Doctorate
10. A Destiny Fulfilled: Defining the Professional Economist
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
