Just prior to the pandemic, women had reached an important economic milestone, holding just over half of all payroll jobs in America, for only the second time in history. Economists were predicting that women would continue to outnumber men in the workforce, particularly since the share of women with a college degree had surpassed that of men. Little did we know that women’s employment prospects would plummet just two months later.
One reason for these losses was that the industries hardest hit by the pandemic — leisure, hospitality, education and even some parts of health care — were disproportionately female—resulting in a “she-cession.” The other reason was the unprecedented disruption to caregiving as daycares and schools were closed. My research showed that among households more susceptible to childcare shocks, mothers experienced more adverse labor market outcomes than fathers, primarily driven a reduction in hours worked (Modestino et al, 2025). The availability of paid family leave, childcare subsidies, and the ability to work from home, had little to no impact on differentially improving labor market outcomes for mothers, possibly because there was little opportunity make use of such benefits during the pandemic. Instead, more informal supports such as back-up childcare and co-worker support were more helpful, especially in reducing psychological distress (Meeker, Modestino, et al. 2024).
My prior work largely focused on various professions that typically require a college or advanced degree, such as physicians, where the gender gap in hours and/or earnings is typically wider. For example, in the past roughly 30 percent of the gender gap in earnings among physicians has stemmed from a sharp reduction in work hours after having children, suggesting family responsibilities remain a key source of disparity (Sasser-Modestino 2005). Other detailed data on breast surgeons—a female dominated subspecialty—revealed a significant gender gap in pay, even when controlling for fellowship training, years of practice, practice setting and location, productivity relative value units, and ownership (Killelea, B., Modestino, A., et. al. 2019). Interestingly, one of the few times that the gender gap among physicians narrowed was during the 1980s and 1990s, as HMO market share increased and restricted medical reimbursements, but then widened after 2000 when HMO enrollments declined—confirming Becker’s theory of competition reducing discrimination in the labor market (Modestino 2025).
The economics profession itself fails to represent society with less than one-third of economics PhD degrees received by women each year, compared to more than half in other social sciences and more than 40% in science and engineering. This persistent pipeline problem starts with female under-representation among economics students and carries through the tenure and promotion process with women accounting for only 15% of full professors due to receiving less credit than their male co-authors and being more likely to have their work rejected by scholarly journals. In a recent study, my co-authors and I link this disparate treatment to the underrepresentation of women in the field. We show that in virtually identical seminar settings, female economists receive 10% to 20% more questions on average than men and are more likely to face patronizing or hostile queries. Moreover, this disparity appears most pronounced during “job talks” – the final stage of academic recruitment and the first rung on the professional ladder, suggesting the ways that the profession can foster more professional discourse.
PEER REVIEWED RESEARCH
Dupas, P., Handlan, A., Modestino, A., Niederle, M., Sere, M.†, Sheng, H. & Wolfers, J. 2023. Gender Differences in Economics Seminars. American Economic Review, Conditional Acceptance, May 2025.
[Pre-print Version]
Media Coverage: Swedish House of Finance [2023], Axios [2023], New York Times [2021]
Modestino, A. The Relationship between Market Forces and Gender Differences in Physician Pay. First Revision Requested, The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, May 2025.
[Pre-print Version]
Dupas, P., Modestino, A., Niederle, M., Wolfers, J. 2021. Gender and the Dynamics of Economics Seminars. NBER Working Paper Series, pp. 1-61.
[Pre-print Version]
Media Coverage: Swedish House of Finance [2023], Axios [2023], New York Times [2021], Inside HigherEd [2021], New York Time [2019]
Modestino, A., Finn, Z.†, Ladge, J. & Lincoln, A. The Impacts of COVID-19 on Working Parents, Childcare, and Gender Equity. IZA Institute of Labor Economics, Discussion Paper No. XX, pp.?-? Submitted to Review of Economics of the Household, May 2025.
[Pre-print Version]
Media Coverage: Axios [2024], HRD America [2023], The Daily Show [2021], MSNBC [2021], NPR Marketplace [2021], PBS NewsHour [2021], Politico [2021], USA Today [2021], Washington Post [2021]
Meeker, S., Modestino, A., Ladge, J., Molnar, B., Lincoln, A. Examining the Relationships Between Workplace Policies and Practices, PTSD, and Distress Among Working Parents During the COVID-19 Crisis. COVID, 5 (3).
[Publication]
Media Coverage: ABC News NightLine [2020], Axios [2020], Boston Globe [2020], Fox News [2020], The New Yorker [2020], NPR OnPoint [2020], PBS NewsHour [2020], Wall Street Journal [2020], Washington Post [2020] and [2020]
Killelea, B., Modestino, A., Gass, J., Kuerer, H., Margenthaler, J., Boolbol, S., Dietz, J., & Manahan, E. 2019. The 2018 Compensation Survey of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. Annals of Surgical Oncology, 26(10): 3052–3062. [Publication]
Sasser, A. 2005. Gender Differences in Physician Pay: Tradeoffs Between Career and Family. Journal of Human Resources, 40(2): 477-504. [Publication]
Sasser, A., Taylor, M., Birnbaum, H., Schoenfeld, M., Oster, E., & Rousculp, M. 2005. Assessing the Economic Impact of Chronic Conditions in Post-Menopausal Women. Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy, 6(11): 1803-1814. [Publication]
Sasser, A., Rousculp, M., Birnbaum, H., Oster, E., Lufkin, E., & Mallet, D. 2005. Economic Burden of Osteoporosis, Breast Cancer, and Cardiovascular Disease Among Postmenopausal Women in an Employed Population. Women’s Health Issues, 15(3): 97-108. [Publication]
Working Papers in Preparation for Submission
Riley-Bowles, H. & Modestino, A. “The Grandparent Effect: Exploring the Implications of Informal Support Systems for the Labor Market Participation and Wellbeing of Diverse Working Mothers” Presented at 11th International Conference of Work and Family, July 2025.
INVITED ARTICLES
Modestino, A. and M. Cronbaugh. 2023. Fostering Inclusion in Economics. J-PAL North America, August 10, 2023. [Publication]
Modestino, A. 2022. How Can We Change the Seminar Culture in Economics?
Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, Newsletter, Issue IV. [Publication]
Modestino, A. 2021. Demystifying the Dismal Science. Project Syndicate, July 26, 2021. [Publication]
Modestino, A., Ladge, J. Swartz, A. and Lincoln, A. 2021. Childcare is a Business Issue. Harvard Business Review, April 29, pp. 1-7. [Publication]
Modestino, A. Coronavirus Child-Care Crisis Will Set Women Back a Generation. The Washington Post, Op-Ed, July 29, 2020. [Publication]
PUBLIC POLICY REPORTS AND BRIEFS
Modestino, A. and Foster, J.D., Improving Job Quality in the Childcare Sector: Assessing the JVS Job Quality Benchmarking Index. Northeastern University, Community to Community Impact Accelerator (C2C), Research Report No. 2024-01. [Publication]
Modestino, A. The Importance of Childcare in Reopening the Economy. EconoFact, July 29, 2020. [Publication]
Modestino, A. The Childcare Industry in New England. 2020. Federal Emergency Management Agency, August 24, 2020, pp. 1-21. [Publication]
