Women are heavily underrepresented in economics textbooks, both in fictional and real examples present in teaching materials, according to a study recently reported by Inside Higher Ed.

The study found the underrepresentation of women may not be causing the gender gap in economics, but that it’s not facilitating change, either. Jerry Evensky, an economics professor at Syracuse University, said the gender gap is due to systematic consistency.

“If you write a textbook with a big publisher, you need to have a big name,” Evensky said. “Big-name economists are people who made their way in a male-driven field. So, they have been socialized to think in these terms and write textbooks that reflect those concepts.”

Presented at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association last month, the study found 77 percent of textbook examples involve men, while 18 percent involve women. The other 5 percent of textbook examples were gender-neutral.

The study found that 41 percent of made-up and ordinary people mentioned in the analyzed textbooks were women; 24 percent of public figures were women; 8 percent of economists were women; 7 percent of policy makers were women; and 6 percent of real business leaders were women.

Evensky said he chose examples representing a diverse group of people in his textbook because he’s aware of underrepresentation in textbooks.

“I try to use a lot of women examples,” Evensky said. “When I talk about discrimination, I talk about race and gender as classic examples.”

By portraying most generic people in his textbooks as women, Evensky said he tries to perpetuate strong women in men-dominated occupations.

When giving an example of nurses and doctors in his textbook, Evensky labeled the nurses as men and the doctors as women.

“Students come up to me and ask, ‘Why does she have to be a doctor, and why does he have to be a nurse?’” Evensky said. “If it was the other way around, no one would say anything.”

Hua Jiang, an associate professor of public relations at SU, said unlike other industries, public relations is dominated by women both studying and practicing PR.

“There are certain chapters (in public relations books) that talk about the feminization of the profession, so definitely there are a lot of images of women,” Jiang said.

The “glass ceiling effect” is apparent for women in the industry, Jiang said. She said men mainly hold executive positions in public relations. She added that textbook writers should be conscious of and sensitive toward the issue, saying professors should provide insight on diversity issues in their profession.

Jiang said she believes women don’t need to be overemphasized, but that women and men should be talked about “honestly.”

Evensky said the solution starts by altering the way society perceives gender.

“If you make people aware of the structures that reinforce these roles, roles become questionable,” Evensky said. “If we liberate ourselves from those roles, we get the benefit of the creativity and imagination of women and men in leadership positions rather in economics, political science or other fields of study.”

Published on February 6, 2018 at 8:25 pm

Contact Jonathan: jnchau@syr.edu