This paper reports the results of the Royal Economic Society Women's Commit
tee 1998 survey on the gender balance in UK academic economics. in 1998, fe
male representation was 4% of professors, 11% of senior lecturers or reader
s, 17% of permanent lecturers, 28% of fixed term lecturers, and 33% of PhD/
research students. The main growth in female representation since 1996 has
been in fixed term lectureships and in PhD/research students (a 5 percentag
e point increase for each). We suggest reasons for the low representation o
f women in academic economics, and also argue that it is a cause fur concer
n.