亚色影库鈥檚 economics and political science department does not look like your average academic program. The main difference: a diverse, women-led student, faculty, and staff population.
鈥淓ven though 60% of all U.S. undergraduates are women, on average, only about 30% of economics undergraduates are women,鈥 said Kristine West, PhD, Endowed Professor in the Sciences, in the fall 2020 issue of 亚色影库 Magazine. 鈥淚n 2019, just 4 % of economics PhDs were awarded to African-American women,鈥 West adds. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a really shocking statistic.鈥漀oticing the large gap, West dove deeper into the issue by launching the Minnesota Center for Diversity in Economics (MCDE), which aims at diversifying economics through education, outreach, and activism.
鈥淲e鈥檙e really interested in getting more girls and young women, and more people in the community who really represent the community, to be aware of economics as a field while they are in high school and middle school,鈥 West says. 鈥淭hat way, the pipeline of students arriving at college is full of people interested in economics and thinking about what it has to offer.鈥
In addition to gender and racial underrepresentation in the economics field, West鈥檚 academic and activist focus at St. Kate鈥檚 includes topics such as discrepancies in Indigenous populations鈥 earnings and historic and current-day racial segregation in Minnesota.