lael brainard : is economics for me? increasing the participation of black women in economics speech by ms lael brainard, member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, at the sadie t. m. alexander conference for economics, washington dc, 23 february 2019. * * * it is an honor to be a part of the inaugural sadie t. m. alexander conference in economics and related fields. i want to thank each of you in this room and those of you livestreaming who form the sadie collective. special thanks go to mykelle richburg, kayla jones, olusayo adeleye, george - ann ryan, jada houser, fanta traore, and anna gifty opoku - agyeman for taking the initiative and launching this organization and this conference to increase the representation of black women in the field of economics. i applaud your efforts, and i support your mission. 1 the story of dr. sadie tanner mossell alexander is an inspiration for us all. a woman of firsts — the first african american to receive a ph. d. in economics and the first woman to receive a law degree from the university of pennsylvania — she was a pioneer who knocked down some daunting doors. the question for the women in this room here today is whether you will follow her through those doors and maybe knock down a few of your own. the need for greater diversity let me start by making two observations about economics. first, the field of economics is rooted in evidence and research. the second observation follows strongly from the research and the evidence : economics has a diversity challenge. there is a stubbornly persistent lack of diversity in the economics profession. 2 year after year, minorities and women are underrepresented in the pool of individuals awarded a doctorate in economics in the united states relative to their share in the broader population, and the gap is especially acute for women of color. the american economic association reports that in the 2016 – 17 academic year, seven black / african american women were awarded a doctorate in economics in the united states, along with eight black / african american men, out of a total pool of 1, 150 economics ph. d.'s awarded overall. the economics diversity gap starts even earlier. as amanda bayer and david wilcox have documented, women and minorities are also underrepresented in undergraduate economics programs. from 2011 to 2015, women accounted for only 31 percent of undergraduate degrees in economics — substantially below their

##g20210325a. htm. - 4such, it gives us a chance to examine that regime ’ s strengths and shortcomings, and to position it well for future challenges. any list of lessons must begin with the strong performance of supervisory stress testing. 9 the stress - testing program not only prepared banks for a period of prolonged hardship ; it also clarified their health and resilience as the covid event progressed. this role was a return to the original purpose of stress testing and a confirmation of its earliest use during the 2008 financial crisis. it also, however, affirmed the ways that stress testing has evolved in recent years, into a more flexible, more transparent anchor for the federal reserve ’ s broader capital program. for example, while it was prudent — given that this was the first real - world test of the post - 2008 system — for us to impose temporary capital distribution restrictions beyond those that form part of that system, we now know that our framework works. we can have particular confidence in the framework when it is supplemented and informed by a real - time stress testing regime. in the future, having learned the lessons of this test, we will be able to rely on the automatic restrictions of our carefully developed framework when the stress test tells us the system will be resilient, rather than impose ad hoc and roughly improvised limitations. other areas, however, are ripe for closer examination, both domestically and internationally. these include the strains in short - term funding markets, and the second destabilizing run on prime money market mutual funds in roughly a decade, which required significant public intervention to address. 10 despite some efforts after the 2008 crisis to enhance randal k. quarles, “ themistocles and the mathematicians : the role of stress testing ” ( speech at the federal reserve bank of atlanta, atlanta, ga ( via webcast ), february 25, 2021 ), https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / speech / quarles20210225a. htm ; see also board of governors of the federal reserve system, “ federal reserve board announces results from second round of bank stress tests will be released friday, december 18, at 4 : 30 p. m. est, ” news release, december 4, 2020, https : / / www. federalreserve. gov / newsevents / pressreleases / bcreg20201204