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Women's Committee

Our Women’s Committee promotes the status of women in economics by identifying and removing barriers to progress. The committee monitors and reports on the status of women in economics and seeks to identify and to tackle the causes of their under-representation in the subject.  It provides support for women in their careers as economists and ensures that the interests of women are represented in all of the Society’s activities.

Current Committee Chair

Prof Sarah Smith

University of Bristol

Sarah Smith is Professor of Economics at the University of Bristol and the current Head of Department. She is an elected member of the EEA council/ former elected member of the RES Council. She has previously worked at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, HM Treasury, Financial Services Authority and the London School of Economics.

Committee members until 2019

Prof Silvana Tenreyro

London School of Economics

Silvana is a Professor at the London School of Economics and External Member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. Silvana’s previous roles have included Co-Director and Board Member of the Review of Economic Studies, Director of the Macroeconomics Programme at the International Growth Centre and Associate Editor for the Economic Journal. She is currently a Lead Academic at the Centre for Macroeconomics at the LSE.

Committee members until 2020

Dr. Marina Della Giusta

University of Reading

Marina is an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Reading. Her publications are in the area of behavioural and labour economics, with particular focus on gender, stigma and social norms. Marina is actively promoting initiatives surrounding both the communication and teaching of economics and the advancement of women in the profession.

Prof Amelia Fletcher

University of East Anglia

Amelia is professor of Competition Policy at the Centre of Competition Policy, University of East Anglia. She is Non-Executive Director at the CMA, FCA and Payment Systems Regulator and a member of the Ofgem Enforcement Decision Panel. She has a DPhil and MPhil in economics from Nuffield College, Oxford and was awarded an OBE in 2014.

Committee members until 2021

Dr Victoria Bateman

University of Cambridge

Dr Victoria Bateman is Lecturer in Economics and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge. She is an economic historian, the author of two books, and regularly commentates on present day economic issues for the press and for radio. Victoria organises an annual Women In Economics Day for 16-18 year olds, taking place at the University of Cambridge every September.

Prof Almudena Sevilla

Queen Mary University of London

Almudena Sevilla is a Professor of Economics and Public Policy at UCL. She holds a £2M ERC Consolidator grant to study the effect of parental time investments and children's human capital accumulation. Almudena obtained a PhD in Economics from Brown University (USA), and previously worked at QMUL, University of Oxford, Essex University, and the US Congressional Budget Office.

Jenny Bates

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

Jenny Bates is Director, EU Exit and Economic Partnerships in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and is co-leading a new initiative to improve gender diversity in the economics profession in government. She was previously Chief Economist and Director of Analysis in BEIS and spent twelve years in HM Treasury and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).

Rain Newton Smith

Confederation of British Industry

Rain Newton-Smith is the Chief Economist at the Confederation of British Industry and previously the head of Emerging Markets at Oxford Economics. Prior to that, Rain worked on the international forecast for the Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. She was honoured by the World Economic Forum in 2012 as a Young Global Leader.

Committee members until 2022

Katharine Neiss

The Bank of England

Katharine Neiss is the Head of the International Surveillance Division in the International Directorate at the Bank of England. She was previously head of our Policy, Strategy and Implementation Division in the Prudential Policy Directorate (2014-7) and holds a PhD in Economics at the University of British Columbia. Her area of specialism is in international trade, finance and monetary economics.

Prof Jo Swaffield

Chair of CHUDE (Co-opted)

Jo is Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics & Related Studies, University of York. Jo is a labour economist interested in low wages, working hours and in-work poverty. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Low Pay Commission. Jo is a member of the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee.