Why Are Women Such Reluctant Economists? Evidence from Liberal Arts Colleges

Female undergraduates are less likely to take an introductory economics class, to continue in economics after completing the first introductory course, and to major in economics than are male undergraduates. Although these gender differences are well documented, the reasons why females are such reluctant economists are less well understood. Some have suggested that the mainstream economics curriculum excludes topics and methodology of interest to women, while others have focused on a classroom environment that is unfriendly to women. Other suspected reasons for the gender gap in economics classes are poorer math preparation of female students, poorer relative performance in economics classes, and less overall interest in the topic due to different career aspirations. Finally, the pedagogy and types of evaluative instruments traditionally used in economics classes may favor male learning styles, contributing to the large percentage of disinterested women.1 Using a large multi-school sample, we investigate how students' characteristics and attitudes interact with the instructor's pedagogy and certain departmental and college-level characteristics to influence students' decisions to continue in economics beyond the first semester. We find that, while attitudes formed prior to taking introductory economics affect students' decisions, experiences in the class also matter: those who receive higher grades in economics relative to their other classes, who are confident in their ability to understand economics, and who believe economics considers the ideas and issues in which they are interested are more likely to continue to study economics. To gain more insight into these relatively straightforward conclusions, we utilize our rich data set to examine which student and instructor characteristics influence the students' relative grades, their confidence, and their perception of relevance. Although we find many factors that an introductory economics teacher cannot influence directly (e.g., high-school math preparation or GPA), we are able to make some specific recommendations about factors that introductory teachers can affect.