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Economics is among the most popular undergraduate majors, especially in top colleges and universities. However, even at the best research universities and liberal arts colleges men outnumber women by two to one, and overall there are about 2.5 males to every female economics major. We discuss why women major in economics less than men and describe a project to increase the number of female economics majors. The Undergraduate Women in Economics (UWE) Challenge was a randomized controlled trial, with 20 treatment and 68 control schools, that we ran for one year in AY 2015–16 to evaluate the impact of light-touch interventions to recruit and retain female economics majors. Treatment schools received funding, guidance, and access to networking with other treatment schools to implement programs such as providing better information to incoming students about the application of economics, exposing students to role models, providing mentoring, and updating course content and pedagogy. Using 2001–2021 data from the NCES-Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) on graduating undergraduates (BAs), we find that UWE was effective in increasing the fraction of female BAs who majored in economics relative to men in liberal arts colleges. Large universities did not show an impact of the treatment, although those that implemented their own RCTs showed moderate success in encouraging more women to major in economics. We discuss what we believe worked in the UWE program and speculate on the reasons for differential treatment impact.

Economics faces stubborn underrepresentation of minoritized identity groups. Economics instructors also largely use antiquated instructional methods. We leverage the literature from the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education, which have rigorously studied instructional techniques and gathered evidence on a variety of methods that improve learning and reduce demographic gaps. We discuss four broad ideas: active and collaborative learning, role model interventions, modernized design of assessments and feedback, and culturally relevant, responsive, and sustaining pedagogy. We frame these approaches in the context of economics identity, share evidence regarding efficacy, and give examples of how the techniques have been and can be used in economics. In so doing, we provide a set of changes economics instructors can make, large and small, to improve their teaching for all students and to reduce demographic gaps in success and persistence in the field.

Since 1974, the American Economic Association Summer Training Program has provided training and mentoring to students from disadvantaged backgrounds in economics. The aim of the program is to encourage and prepare these students to apply to PhD programs in economics and ultimately to increase diversity in the profession. The program has been hosted by different universities over the years. This paper provides insights and lessons learned from the program's tenure at Michigan State University from 2016 to 2020. In addition to discussing the structure and outcomes of the program, we provide advice to students, faculty, and potential hosts who may be interested in the AEA Summer Program or similar programs.