Women in the economy and in economics

Abstract

Thank you to the Women in Economics Network for the invitation to speak at its ACT launch. It is an incredible honour. It is also very pleasing to see that this network has been formed. As I’ll discuss later in my talk, economics has struggled with an image – and a reality – of being a male-dominated profession. This is true both in Australia and in many other countries, and it is more of an issue in economics than in some other quantitative disciplines. Networks such as these are instrumental in helping to break down barriers. That’s needed, because there are considerable barriers to achieving a more equal participation of both sexes in the profession, consistent with the true distribution of talent.