Female economists are on the rise after years of discrimination
Not long ago, prominent women economists were almost as scarce as generals in skirts. Today, though they must still battle prejudice, more and more women are scaling the heights of the profession. One reason: the increasing complexity of figuring out what is really happening on today's business scene has created a demand for trained economists that often makes ability outweigh gender. In short, discrimination is no longer affordable. Equally important, the rising confidence and assertiveness of women is felt in economics as in most other fields.
The growing stature of women economists is most obvious in the policy-making realms of Government, where political pressures have weakened antifemale prejudices far more than in the worlds of academe and business. Never have so many women economists held such high federal posts as they do today. Some notable examples:
ALICE MITCHELL RIVLIN, 47, since 1975 has been director of the Congressional Budget Office, which was created that year to give objective advice to Congressmen on the cost and effectiveness of various Government programs. Under Rivlin the CBO has annoyed Republicans by reporting that President Ford's spending budget was inadequate for the needs of the economy and nettled Democrats by branding the Carter Administration's estimates of what the energy program would accomplish "overly optimistic."
Rivlin was graduated from Bryn Mawr and earned a doctorate in economics at Radcliffe. She is widely regarded as one of the nation's most effective economic technicians, and knows Washington's power game well. A nominal liberal, she was an Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Lyndon Johnson and, in the early '70s, specialized in budget watching at the Washington-based Brookings Institution. Says Rivlin, who is a divorced mother of three: "Things are better now for women economists, but history is difficult to break. The ranks are very thin in my age group."
NANCY HAYS TEETERS, 48, four months ago became the first woman member of the Federal Reserve Board. She is a seasoned Washington hand. After graduate study in economics at Michigan State, she was an economist at the Fed, became a staff member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Kennedy years and put in a stint at the Bureau of the Budget. She was a senior fellow at Brookings in the early '70s, and just before being tapped for the Fed was chief economist for the House Budget Committee.
An expert on budgets and unemployment patterns, Teeters is a liberal on most issues. Her vote on the Reserve Board could be critical in deciding whether to increase the risk of recession by letting borrowing costs continue to go up. Teeters is one of the few women economists who say that they did not encounter any discrimination in their rise to the top. "In fact," Teeters asserts, "while I was having three children, the Fed even created a part-time job so that I could continue working."
JUANITA KREPS, who will turn 58 next week, is the first economist as well as the first woman to be Secretary of Commerce. She worked up the academic ladder to become a Duke University vice president, and has held a long list of corporation and foundation directorships.