Undergraduate Spring Panel: Gender and Diversity in Economics
In the shadow of the Me Too Movement, we have seen a new perspective on gender and diversity within American society. When UChicago economist Gary Becker began researching gender roles and discrimination in the 1950s, few onlookers thought such social issues were in the purview of the discipline of economics. Today, understanding the causes and consequences of diversity in economic activity, especially in labor markets, constitutes a large body of economic research. What has changed since the 1950s that has encouraged economists to tackle these issues? What have we learned along the way about gender and diversity? And what work is there still to do?
The Becker Friedman Institute is pleased to have welcomed the speakers for the Undergraduate Spring Panel, featuring Kerwin Kofi Charles, Paola Sapienza, and Betsey Stevenson. These leading economists joined us to discuss how their research sheds light on gender and diversity in America today. The conversation explored costs and sources of discrimination, origins of gender differences in labor formation, issues of identification and measurement, and gender equality within the field of economics itself.
