A Larry Summers moment

From division of labour comes news that scientists have discovered why women can’t read maps.

Could this help explain why there are so few women economists? (A survey by the Royal Economic Society found fewer than 19 per cent of academic economists are women.)

The thing is, maps are a lot like economic models – whether they come in graphs, maths or just words. They are highly abstract things that often bear little resemblance to real-world conditions but they can (sometimes) help us find our way around.

Could it be therefore that difficulties in understanding economic models and in reading maps are related?

A simple test would illuminate this. Is it the case that women economists are better at map-reading than women generally?

Comments

[Tim Worstallt]

I think I would rather it were you who wrote to Lynne Keisling on that one instead of me.

[Blimpish]

Far be it from me to pass up an opportunity for blatant misogyny, but as an Economics undergraduate, my impression was that most women just had better things to do.