Female Representation in the Academic Finance Profession

We present new data on female representation in the academic finance profession. In our sample of finance faculty from the top-100 U.S. business schools during 2009–2017, only 16.0% are women. The gender imbalance manifests itself in several ways. First, after controlling for research productivity, women have less favorable career outcomes. They hold positions at lower-ranked institutions, are less likely to be tenured and full professors, and there is evidence that they are paid less. Second, women publish fewer papers. Third, women have more female coauthors, which suggests smaller publication networks. Time-series data suggest shrinking gender gaps in recent years.