The prevalence of gender topics in U.S. economics journals

This study complements existing research on the contributions and rankings of female economists with a descriptive analysis of the prevalence of gender issues in U.S. economicsjournals. Assuming that labor economics and development economics are the fields most likely to examine gender issues, I compare the incidence of gender-related articles in the last decade in leading U.S. general economics journals with top journals in the labor and development fields. I also examine the gender composition of authors of gender-related articles in all journals. Results indicate that the highest ranked field journals publish a higher percentage of articles on gender than do the leading general journals from among their labor and development papers. And unlike the common perception, a disproportionate number of the gender articles are written by men rather than women, particularly in the labor and general journals. The results suggest that departments that use publication in general journals as a proxy for overall research quality, and which do not consider alternative evaluations of research as potential full substitutes, may be using biased measures of the quality and importance of research on gender. The publication policies of general economics journals and the promotion policies of certain economics departments may have a direct effect in reducing both the number and perceived prestige of voices addressing issues of gender in economics.