New Economic Perspectives

President Biden has appointing several women–and often women of color–to critical positions in his administration that will shape the country’s economic future. (Historically, people of color have been even less represented in the field of economics than women have.) Here, Election Central takes a closer look at a few of these groundbreaking women.

Examining the Gender and Race Gap

The field of economics is dominated significantly by white men. One example of this is the number of full economics professors at universities. Today, only 14 percent of them are women, and out of the thirty highest-ranked universities, only 1.6 percent of economics professors are people of color.

Why does this matter? Because the policies created by economists have the power to shape the lives and economic futures of the rest of us. Women–especially women of color, and especially the specific women Biden has chosen for administration–are more likely to back policies that will protect vulnerable members of society, such as the poor, people of color, and women.

Cecilia Rouse

Rouse is the first African American female chairperson of the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Before this, she was a dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and served as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama. Rouse has spent her career examining the ways that race, gender, poverty, and access to education intersect to impact workers’ ability to get ahead. As chair of the CEA, Rouse will provide President Biden with research-based economic advice and help him to create both foreign and domestic economic policy.

Janet Yellen

Yellen, a white woman, is the first female U.S. Treasury secretary in 232 years, and the first person in history to have led the White House Council of Economic Advisors, the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury Department. Yellen grew up in Brooklyn, where she saw the toll that unemployment took on her community and its families. These experiences motivated and inspired the rest of her life’s work. She has even been criticized by members of Congress for speaking out about growing income equality. Her approach to monetary policy and refusal to raise interest rates helped unemployment rates to hit a fifty-year low. Secretary Yellen is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council.

Janelle Jones

Jones, 36, is the first African American woman to be the chief economist at the Department of Labor. She comes from the Economic Policy Institute and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and coined the phrase “Black Women Best,” which refers to her belief that African American women should be prioritized economically because they are the last demographic group to recover from recessions and other economic hardships. Her goal is to find solutions for unemployment, particularly unemployment as it affects people of color and women. Jones is a believer in a hands-on approach to fighting poverty; she is a former volunteer with both AmeriCorps and Peace Corps, and is active on social media.

Dig Deeper The women featured above are just a few of the groundbreaking economists in Biden’s administration. Choose one of the following and use Internet resources to write a short paragraph about her: Angela Hanks; Heather Boushey; Martha Gimbel; Joelle Gamble.