Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP17229
Authors: David de la Croix; Mara Vitale
Abstract: We document the participation of women in European academia from the first universities to the eve of the Industrial Revolution. 108 women taught at universities or were members of academies of arts and sciences. Most of them were active in Catholic southern Europe - an unexpected result. We conjecture that Protestantism left less room for women at the top of the distribution of human capital to exercise their talent. The percentage of ever-married female scholars is 79%, but a large fraction of them remained childless. We measure the quality of women in academia through their publications. Comparing them to 52,000 male scholars, we find that they were on average better, suggesting some form of discrimination.
Keywords: university; academy; protestantism; publications; gender
JEL Codes: N33; Z12; I23; J16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Protestant Reformation (N33) | women's roles in academia (J16) |
| religious context (Z12) | women's academic participation (I24) |
| Protestantism (Z12) | women's academic participation (I24) |
| women's publications vs. male scholars (J16) | selection bias (C24) |
| discrimination against women in academia (J16) | Protestant regions (N93) |
| Catholic environments (Z12) | women's academic opportunities (I24) |