Susan Averett, professor and chair of economics and business, is coauthor of a new textbook with Saul D. Hoffman, Women and the Economy: Family, Work, and Pay, published by Pearson Addison Wesley.
“This is an excellent book …the authors do a great job presenting the latest research in this field in a way that is accessible to undergraduate students,” says Evelyn Lehrer, professor of economics at University of Illinois, Chicago.
The authors use the tools of economics to examine women’s lives in the areas of work and pay, marriage, divorce, fertility, family policy, and others. The book combines economic theory with discussions of cutting-edge empirical research and policy issues to offer a new perspective on the lives of women in the 21st century.
In the book’s preface, Averett acknowledges the “enthusiasm and painstaking research” of economics and business major Marissa Moore ’03 (Bethlehem, Pa.), who worked with her to gather data, laws, statistics, and other information.
The book’s introduction highlights some of the changes of the last several decades:
“In 1960, women’s choices and opportunities concerning fertility, marriage, education, and occupation were very different from what they are today. Women were still underrepresented at colleges and universities. Early marriage was the norm, and fertility was very high. Most births were to married women. The married-couple family was by far the dominant adult family structure…As a group, women earned considerably less than men, even when they worked full time.
“By 2000, things had changed. Men are now underrepresented at colleges and universities. Later marriage is now the norm. Fertility has fallen sharply to about half its level just 40 before. The link between marriage and fertility has been greatly weakened. Births to single women — once a relatively rare event that families hid — have grown and are now one third of all births; consequently the proportion of families with children that are headed by a single mother has also increased. Married women have joined the work force in record numbers…The gender gap in earnings remains, although it has been considerably diminished.”
The book addresses these changes and the many public policy issues that have resulted, such as family leave, the marriage tax, welfare reform, and the problems of children in single-parent families.
In contrast, the authors explain, men’s economic lives haven’t changed nearly as much, and most courses in economics are male-oriented. For example, when a typical labor economics course considers labor supply issues, it almost always examines a model of behavior that fits men’s choices well enough, yet all but ignores women’s choices. The standard model of labor supply considers an individual who chooses between market work and leisure, thereby excluding from the analysis the activity that has occupied much of women’s time for generations — family responsibilities.
Averett stepped in to co-author the project after her friend and former colleague Leslie Whittington, associate professor of public policy at Georgetown University, perished along with her husband and two young daughters in the Sept. 11, 2001 plane that struck the Pentagon.
She included Moore through Lafayette’s distinctive EXCEL Scholars program, in which students conduct research with faculty while earning a stipend. The program has helped to make Lafayette a national leader in undergraduate research. Many of the more than 160 students who participate in EXCEL each year go on to publish papers in scholarly journals and/or present their research at conferences.
In addition to the subject matter, making a scholarly contribution to the field of economics motivated Moore.
“Knowing that my efforts would culminate in a textbook that other students will be using was very rewarding,” she says. “And knowing that Dr. Whittington’s life’s works are also present in this text is rewarding. Carrying on her legacy makes her untimely and tragic death seem less in vain.”
“Lafayette is such a supportive and friendly environment for learning,” adds Moore. “All of the faculty and staff I interacted with were always willing to take the time to help me out and let me bounce ideas off them,” she says.
Averett has mentored many other Lafayette students. She guided Christine Bender ’04(Gibsonia, Pa.), who graduated in May with honors in economics & business and a second degree in neuroscience, in a yearlong research project seeking to improve access to Medicaid for the homeless. Bender was one of 42 Lafayette students invited to present their work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, hosted April 15-17 by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She will attend the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine this fall.
In another recent research project, Averett mentored Trustee Scholarship recipientKatharine Wolchik ’05 (Randolph, N.J.), a double major in mathematics and economics & business, as they studied abstinence education in the United States over a 10-year period to evaluate its impact on the rate of teen pregnancy.
Averett has been honored with nine awards for her teaching. Most recently, she was the inaugural recipient this year of the James E. Lennertz Prize for Exceptional Teaching and Mentoring. She received the Michael E. Borus Dissertation Award, presented by Ohio State University and the Center for Human Resources Research for the outstanding dissertation using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth database. She has served as a visiting scholar at the Policy Research Center based at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Averett frequently shares her research through conference presentations and publications in academic journals. She is a referee for a dozen journals, primarily ones covering topics in economics or labor, and was guest editor for a special issue on health economics in Eastern Economic Journal.
She is a member of the American Economic Association, Population Association of America, and Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession.
Averett joined the Lafayette faculty in 1991. She earned a Ph.D. and masters in economics at University of Colorado in 1991 and 1990, respectively, and a B.S. in economics with honors at Colorado State University in 1986.
A National Leader in Undergraduate Research. Pepper Prize recipient Christine Bender ’04 presented research on the homeless with guidance by Susan Averett, professor of economics and business, at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.