Lagarde or not, women still face bias in economics

Bloomberg

Hostility and discrimination await women daring to encroach upon the male-dominated world of economics and central banking, according to papers presented at a European Central Bank conference.
The research shows that the much-celebrated rise of Christine Lagarde — a lawyer and politician, not an economist or central banker — to become the ECB’s first-ever female president is atypical for her gender.
Among the presentations in Frankfurt, a study presented by Northeastern University’s Alicia Modestino coded interactions between speakers and their audiences at several hundred economics seminars. It showed that female speakers have a greater share of their seminar time taken up by audience members, and are more likely to be asked hostile questions.
“Economics has a distinctively aggressive seminar culture,” said Modestino.
“This paper is the first systematic attempt at quantitatively measuring whether the seminar culture leads to disparate treatment.” A report by the Bank of Spain showed that submissions of papers with all-female authors to economics conferences are 3.2% less likely to be accepted than papers with all-male authors papers, even after controlling for a number of factors.