Women as Producers of Economic Articles: A Statistical Assessment of the Nature and the Extent of Female Participation in Five British and North American Journals 1900-39

Abstract

Research on Trends in professionalisation and specialisation in the early journal literature as part of a historical study of twentieth century economics discloses interesting data on the changing role of women in the production of journal literature over the first four decades of the century. A data base covering the American Economic Review, Economica, Economic Journal, Journal of Political Economy and Quarterly Journal of Economics, findings on gender balance in journal articles and on occupational, specialisation and professional characteristics of women contributors on both an aggregate and comparative basis. A more startling result from the investigation has been to explain why so many women managed to break into the economic journals in this formative period of professionalised economics and to reflect on the reasons why this position changed from the perspective of experience on both sides of the Atlantic. These in turn shed light on the nature of the profession and the degree of specialisation in the journals in academic economics in the decades before World War II.