Women in European Academia before 1800 - Religion, Marriage, and Human Capital

David de la Croix and Mara Vitale

No 17229, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

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 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 J16 N33 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-04
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Journal Article: Women in European academia before 1800—religion, marriage, and human capital (2023)
Working Paper: Women in European Academia before 1800 - Religion, Marriage, and Human Capital (2022)
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