Women in Economics – Details, episodes & analysis

“When you have a lot of women faculty or when you have women who are on the Federal Open Market Committee or presidents of the regional Fed, it does change the conversation,” says Heather Long, editorial writer and columnist at the Washington Post. “It does inspire more people to get involved in the field.” In this podcast, Long discusses her journey in journalism and the importance of diversity in economics.

“We launched the center with the main objective to champion diversity in economics, both in academia and policymaking,” says Marina Azzimonti, senior economic research advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and director of its Center for Advancing Women in Economics. In this episode, learn about the center’s work to support women in economics.

“We're here to serve the public, and I think it's really important that in doing that we represent the society that we serve, all different dimensions of society,” says Sharon Donnery, the first woman appointed deputy governor of the Central Bank of Ireland.

“I actually decided to study economics before I even got to undergrad,” says Hannah Rubinton, economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She talks with Laura Girresch, manager of media relations, about her research on business dynamism and what it was like to have children during her Ph.D. studies at Princeton University.

“I do think very passionately that economics is a great gig,” says Ellen McGrattan, professor of economics at the University of Minnesota. She discusses economics with three of her former students: Kathleen McKiernan, assistant professor at Vanderbilt University; Emily Moschini, assistant professor at the College of William and Mary; and Ming Xu, assistant professor at Queens University.

“We learned something about how to evaluate criminal justice policy,” says Amanda Michaud, senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. She talks about her research on how criminal justice policy may affect employment among men of prime working age.

“The National Economic Association and its members have done a lot of really important work within the profession, work that is often unheralded,” says Nina Banks, president of the NEA and associate professor at Bucknell University. She talks about her new book and research on community activism by marginalized women.

“Economics, certainly, is about the data and the numbers side of things. But it’s also about the stories and the people that are behind those numbers and how we tell those stories,” says Julie Bennett, research associate at the St. Louis Fed. She is joined by fellow research associates Praew Grittayaphong and Maggie Isaacson as they discuss research and working in economics.

“There are so few Black female economists, and I guess … I feel like my perspective is quite different from many white male and female economists that I’ve seen,” says Kristen Broady, a fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program and professor of financial economics at Dillard University.

“I have become a much better economist because I have been exposed to a lot of different perspectives,” says Catherine Mann, global chief economist at Citibank from 2018 to 2021. She discusses the influence of her mentors, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.