Publication

Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer and Members of the 117th Congress,

As a member of the first Cohort of the Mosaic Economic Project — an effort to advance women experts in the policy debate — and in the spirit of International Women’s Day 2021 “Choose to Challenge” theme, we ask you to choose to deepen your bench of economists, business leaders, and technology experts on Capitol Hill.

The under-representation of women in economics and technology, despite women constituting a larger share of the population and having a commensurately greater economic influence, has many causes, including lack of educational opportunity and unequal opportunity within the workplace and male-dominated professions. We need Congress to be part of the solution.

The lack of diverse experts in senior staff, as resources, and those called to provide informal expertise as well as formal testimony has long been a blind spot among policymakers. You—the most diverse Congress in history—can do better. Otherwise, Congress will continue to advance economic policies lacking the perspective of all Americans.

As authorities on pocketbook issues that affect us all, economists are highly sought-after, with celebrity-like status among reporters, investors and policymakers. Why? With increasingly frequent and severe episodes of economic volatility, that politicians seek guidance from those who specialize in rigorous analysis makes sense. Yet tens of thousands of hours of expert testimony show mostly men have been called upon. Despite our contributions, women still do not have equal opportunities to showcase our expertise.

It will take time to fix the broken educational pipeline, wherein elementary school girls too often don’t receive the same encouragement in math and science as boys do. Congress must dig a little deeper to find women experts in economics, business and technology. They are out there. We are out there. The Mosaic Economic Project will be happy to help you connect.

MOSAIC ECONOMIC PROJECT – COHORT 1: