Nobel Prize Highlights Timeliness of Gender Equity Research

Posted October 10, 2023

Harvard University Professor Claudia Goldin received the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday for her research on women's equity in the workforce.

The Nobel committee’s decision to give Goldin the award highlights the urgency of the topic, one that several faculty members in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts have also dedicated their careers to studying. Explore their recent work on gender equity in STEM, academia, music, and more, and meet some of our esteemed experts in the field. 
 

Ivan Allen College Research on Women in the Workforce

Men Still Dominate Scientific Research; Here Are 26 Ways to Change That

"When science is representative of the full population, the benefits of science will also extend to the fullest," writes Cassidy R. Sugimoto, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair of the School of Public Policy. In her new book, Equity for Women in Science, she explores the systemic barriers preventing the advancement of women in science and lays out 26 recommendations to help combat them. 
 

It's Tough Being a Mom in Academia, New Research Confirms

In one of the largest academic studies evaluating parenthood's impact on scholarly productivity, a team of researchers, including Sugimoto, found that many moms in academia continue to take a bigger career hit than their male counterparts. 
 

Student Evaluations Show Bias Against Female Professors

A study by Whitney Buser, a senior academic professional in the School of Economics, explores the nature and causes of gender bias in student teaching evaluations. "Eliminating or reducing gender bias in teaching evaluations could have an enormous impact on women and their ability to thrive in academia," she says.
 

Women Rock (20 Percent of The Time, That Is)

With Taylor Swift's chart-topping dominance and Beyoncé's headline-making tour, it might seem like women command the music industry. However, a new book by School of Literature, Media, and Communication Professor Philip Auslander shares how that's far from true, even as it celebrates the accomplishments of women in popular music.

School of Economics Study Examines Impact of Trade Liberalization on Wage Gap, Work Patterns

Economists have long known that trade liberalization policies can reduce the wage gap between women and men in the workforce. A study by Professor Tibor Besedes, Assistant Professor Seung Hoon Lee, and Ph.D. student Tongyang Yang in the School of Economics unpacks that effect in detail by examining the impacts of the U.S. decision to grant China Permanent Normal Trade Relations status in 2000.
 

Faculty Experts in the Field

Interested in learning more? The Ivan Allen College is proud to spotlight some of our long-time faculty experts on gender equity studies.

Kaye Husbands Fealing, dean and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, has devoted much of her research to issues of gender equality, such as analyzing gender pay gaps at U.S. federal science agencies and measuring the gender gap in innovation.

Husbands Fealing received the 2021 Outstanding Women Of Color Impact Award for her efforts to advance diversity in the workplace for women. She is serving a second three-year term as an appointed member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering, where she advises the NSF on ways to broaden opportunities for women, minorities, and disabled people in science, engineering, and related fields.

Mary Frank Fox is the Dean's Distinguished Professor in the School of Public Policy and a pioneer in the study of women in science. As an academic subject, the study of women in science was nonexistent when Fox was in college. Over the course of her career, she brought acceptance and national recognition to the issue through her research and articles in 60 different scientific and scholarly journals, books, and collections. 

Fox also helped bring the ADVANCE program, which seeks to increase representation of women and minority faculty in STEM fields, to Georgia Tech. She was the Ivan Allen College ADVANCE professor from the program’s founding until 2020.
 

Now, Mary G. McDonald, the Homer C. Rice Chair in Sports and Society in the School of History and Sociology, has taken on the ADVANCE professorship for Ivan Allen College. 

In this role, McDonald joins faculty members from each college to "advocate for holistic approaches as catalysts to increase the representation, full participation, and advancement of women and minority faculty in STEM fields at Georgia Tech and beyond." This ties into her research, where McDonald focuses on inequality in American culture and sport, whether it be by gender, race, class, or sexuality.
 

Michael Best is a professor at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing. He co-founded the EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, a coalition of government, industry, and academic organizations dedicated to promoting gender balance in the technology sector. In 2019, the group published a 340-page report on Taking Stock: Data and Evidence on Gender Equality in Digital Access, Skills and Leadership, which Best presented at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
 

Economics Professor Jason Lindo and Assistant Professor Mayra Pineda-Torres study how access to reproductive healthcare affects women. In a 2020 study, they examined how changes in access to contraception and abortion during the 1960s and 70s affected women’s educational attainment and near-retirement earnings. Lindo has also published on the relationship between access to contraception and women's economic outcomes.