Women in Economics

“We need to fix the issue of girls thinking that they cannot study something with math,” says Paulina Restrepo-Echavarría. She is a research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She talks with Mary Suiter, assistant vice president and economic education officer at the St. Louis Fed, about the economic theory of matching and how it applies to finding a spouse or partner. They also discussed why we need more women in macroeconomics and how we should encourage girls to pursue economics and other fields involving math. “We need to teach them, since they are very little, that they're good at math, that they can learn it, that if they want to, they can do it,” she says, adding that building self-esteem and empowerment is a starting point. “They need to know that they can do it.”

“I firmly believe that there is more ‘we’ and less ‘me’ among women, which leads to productive teamsmanship and the nurturing of each other and the next generation of economists, whether male or female,” says Susan Feigenbaum. Feigenbaum is a curators’ distinguished teaching professor in the department of economics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

“Maybe we can do better than we have,” on diversity in economics, says Claudia Sahm, the section chief for consumer and community development at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Despite groups and newsletters dedicated to women, minorities and the LGBT community, Sahm said there is room for improvement in the field.

“I realized that keeping your head down and working hard was not going to get you that far, because you need to get recognized for that,” says Ellen Zentner, chief economist at Morgan Stanley. This “aha” moment led Zentner to actively manage her career, and the result was advancement and success. Zentner went from the University of Colorado to the state of Texas and finally to Wall Street.

“I loved the psychology of how people interact,” which is why Mary Daly, the research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, was drawn to economics. She shares the story of her journey from high school dropout to a leader in economic research. She credits a counselor, a professor and even former Fed chair Janet Yellen for aiding in her success.