Why Aren’t There More Women Economists at the United Nations?

Then-European Parliament Vice President Isabelle Durant, who currently serves as acting Secretary General of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, attends a yearly remembrance ceremony for the Jewish deportees of World War II in Mechelen, Belgium, on Sept. 9, 2012. KRISTOF DEBECKER/AFP/Getty Images

May 17, 2021, 8:27 AM

From all appearances, it is a golden age for women in economics, a traditionally male-dominated field that has recently seen women appointed to the top jobs at the U.S. Treasury, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund—the latter, twice in a row. The World Bank’s chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, is a Cuban American woman.