Women are still largely underrepresented in the field of economics, according to recent studies. Using the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) database, Anne Boring, Assistant Professor at Erasmus School of Economics, compares the proportions of female economists in large economies. Female representation in European countries is higher than the world average of 19%, especially in Latin countries (30% in Italy, 27% in Spain and 26% in France) and Eastern Europe (especially Romania with 52%). Anglo-Saxon countries score significantly worse with 16% in the United States and 18% in the United Kingdom.
The RePEc database includes more than 52,000 authors of economic research papers from all around the world. Another striking finding is that the proportion of women by cohort of PhD graduates has stagnated in many countries.