When I say I'm a mathematics and economics double major, I get a range of responses. My favorite are the ones where people say something like, "You're doing good, kid" accompanied with a thumbs up or a smile. My least favorite type of response is when people say something like, "Wow! And you're a girl too!" as if being a woman makes it somehow extraordinary. I know it's because I'm majoring in two male dominated fields, especially economics, and that it comes as a surprise to most people that I would choose those two things. To give you the whole perspective on my journey on becoming a double major, I've included my story below. I've also included some facts to put perspective on the male to female ratio in both mathematics and economics as well as my thoughts on both.
When I registered to go to Millersville University, I was a declared B.S. math major. I didn't have a concentration and I wasn't even thinking about trying to get a minor. After my freshman semester and my first economics course, I thought, "Hey! I might not mind being an econ minor".
Fast forward to a year later and I'm declaring a concentration in actuary science. Actuary science is the area of study that applies different statistical and mathematical methods to assess risk in different professions, finances, insurances, and other industries. To be an actuary, I also have to pass a series of exams that can take up to 10 years to complete. At this point in time, I had also decided for sure that yes, I was going to be an economics minor but that I wasn't going to declare it until I finished the minor. I was also going to use economics to fulfill a requirement under my concentration where I either take a mixture of physics, chemistry, and biology, or I take four courses from a single department.
Fast forward to another year later when I'm getting my spring schedule ready months before my actuary registration and I realize "Oh my! After the next semester, I'll only have 3 more classes to take and I don't necessarily want to graduate early". I also decided that instead of economics fulfilling the requirement under my concentration, I would be using communications as I've found that I really enjoy it.
After realizing that I could be graduating in about year with my intended major complete and a minor, I was a little surprised. I usually took winter session courses and took a course over one of the three summer sessions, but I never realized that it would put me a semester ahead. After many phone calls to my parents and grandparents as well as talking to my advisor, I decided to look into majoring in economics as well.
I went on the economics page on Millersville's site and pulled up the major requirements, and in order to complete the major I'd only need to add 6 more classes, 3 of which I will most likely need for actuarial stuff anyways. At first I was thinking "6 classes seems like a lot" until I realized that it turns into 9 courses over the course of 2 semesters. When registration time came, I was also able to register for one of the courses I'd need for economics, so now I'm down to only 8 courses over my final two semesters. There is also the possibility that I will be able to override the economics statistics course I have to take with the statistics course I have to take for my math degree, so I'd be down to only 7 classes.
The best part is I will graduate in Spring 2018 with 2 full degrees, and I won't have to take any more summer or winter courses. I'm taking 2 winter courses right now, but I mainly did to knock out my last gen-ed and take the final communications courses needed to complete my requirement. I had thought about declaring a concentration for my econ major, but I'm not sure about that yet, but it could be in my future. I'm also so used to taking extra classes over the summer and winter that I'm a bit worried I might get bored.
Now that I've shared the story of how I've declared one of my majors and will be declaring the other next semester, I'd like to talk a little about the female versus male population in my classes.
In my math classes, I haven't noticed too much of a difference, it always seems pretty 50/50 with some classes having more guys and some classes having more girls. There is, however, a difference in the number of female straight math majors compared to male straight math majors. I know a lot of female math majors who are going to be teachers, but maybe only 5 who are going to into straight math. In economics I have noticed a pretty steep difference. In most of my econ classes, there is definitely more men than women, but it usually seems something like a 40/60 or 30/70 split. In one of my courses I took last spring, there were 4 girls and 26 guys which was a little intimidating.
In both economics and math classes, I have never had a guy talk down to me. Not to say that I expected it, but growing up you get used to boys being expected to go into math, science, or government. Little girls are usually given a disapproving look when they say that they want to work on Wall Street.
Aside from my own personal experience, I looked up some studies about the number of female math majors. According to one study a little over 40% of math majors in the later months of 2014 were female math majors. This percentage has fallen since the mid-ninties however, where nearly half of the math majors were women. Another study done in 2009 by the Mathematical Association of America expresses that the number of women math majors is on a decline. Also compared to the number of male math majors being declared, a more definitive difference might be seen in classrooms in the future.
In a study done in 2015 about the number of women per major, it had been found that only roughly 30% of all economics majors are women. This study also points out that "even math itself is less male-dominated that economics." In the study, it attributes two things to the lack of female economics majors: there aren't enough female economists to look up to and that the things that draw people in to the econ major (i.e. textbooks, posters, etc) don't include things that appeal to women. In the study, the page in the textbook they use as an example has a blue sports car on it, that has nothing in fact to do with anything on the page.
Another study done by a Harvard student at Adams, a liberal arts college, expresses that the gap between men and women in economics is also not shrinking. The article also cites the number of men and women who graduate with economics degrees from Adams and that from 2005 to 2012 the number of female economics majors was only 10% of the graduating class, but it rose to 33% in 2013. The numbers of male economics majors fluctuate as well, but normally not by 20% or more. The study also found that out of the incoming classes over the course of 2005 to 2013 that 10% of women choose economics as their primary major, while 20% of men did out of the 14.7% of students who choose economics as their primary degree. In the beginning the difference isn't as large, but once students add a secondary major, the difference becomes steeper. The study found that economics is a secondary major for 14% of students and that 17.6% of the students who declare econ as a second major are men while only an additional 10% of females declare it as a secondary degree. This study attributes the loss of female economics majors from those who originally registered their freshman fall semester as economics majors is the grades that females receive in Adam's course called Principles of Economics: The Portals to Economics. Men are more likely to receive A's or A-'s compared to women.
I found all of the studies included in this article interesting. However, it made me sad that most women drop their econ degrees after not receiving as high a grade as their male classmates. It also makes me sad that the number of female math majors are falling.
To all the girls reading this who are considering majoring in a STEM field or economics or taking a minor in either: I want to encourage you to follow through with it! Growing up, I remember it was always such a surprise when a girl liked math or science over art or english, and it shouldn't be a surprise! Girls and women should be encouraged to have an appreciation for those subjects.
