This year marks the Silver Anniversary of the Royal Economic Society’s Women’s Committee.
The Committee’s July 2021 Gender Diversity Report highlights women’s representation in UK economics – from the undergraduate level through to the professorship. The data reveals a combination of advance, stagnation and retreat, while comparisons show that academic economics has fallen behind policymaking in terms of women’s representation.
On 6 October 2021, the Royal Economic Society will host a webinar on the report. This webinar aims to continue the vital discussion on women’s representation in the discipline, providing an opportunity for knowledge exchange between academia and policymaking and for two-way engagement within the academic profession itself.
Chaired by Professor Tim Besley, LSE and President of the Royal Economic Society, the event will feature a short summary of the report’s findings, delivered by co-author Dr Victoria Bateman, University of Cambridge, along with a panel of speakers:
Dr Nina Banks
President | National Economic Association (NEA)
Nina is President of the National Economic Association (NEA) and Associate Professor of Economics at Bucknell University. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Editorial Board of The Review of Black Political Economy. Her research makes visible the hidden work of Black and other marginalized women by developing an economics of their community activism against racial and ethnic disparities.
Her determination to restore Black women to U.S. history led to the recovery of the economic thought of the first Black American economist, Sadie T.M. Alexander. Dr. Banks is the founder of the annual Freedom and Justice conference of the National Economic Association (NEA). Dr. Banks holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is the author of Democracy, Race, and Justice: The Speeches and Writings of Sadie T. M. Alexander (Yale University Press) 2021.
Donna Leong
Director of Economic Statistics Change | ONS
Donna is the Director of Economic Statistics Change at ONS, with responsibility for overseeing the economic statistics transformation programme. She also heads up ONS’s work on subnational statistics and analysis (“levelling up”). An experienced senior civil service leader and economist, Donna has previously worked at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, HM Treasury and the NZ Treasury. She has an MSc in Economics from LSE.
Dr Emiliya Lazarova
Chair of CHUDE
Emiliya Lazarova is the Head of School of Economics and Associate Professor in Economics at UEA. Emiliya’s main research contribution is in coalition formation and matching theory and she pursues a wider agenda in applied theory. Emiliya is a member of the Royal Economic Society Schools Outreach Sub-Committee. Emiliya is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Misa Tanaka
Head of Research | Bank of England
Misa is the Head of Research at the Bank of England. She has joined the Bank in 2002 after completing a D.Phil in Economics at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. She has held a number of positions across Monetary Analysis, Financial Stability, and Prudential Policy Areas of the Bank. Misa’s current research interests include prudential policies and the impact of climate change on the financial system.
The aim of the event is to help identify “what works” in terms of improving women’s representation in economics. The Q&A will provide an opportunity for anyone attending to feed into the discussion, based either on their own experiences or their research. The pursuit of gender equality in academic economics requires more than a report – it demands active and continued discussion between us all.
To register for a place at the webinar follow this link.
