Career Choices and Challenges Among Agricultural Economists

Abstract

A number of trends regarding specific factors that influence employment decisions and challenges affecting careers for men, women, and minorities in the agricultural economics profession are both ongoing and emerging. In 1998, the Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics (CWAE) began a tracking system to more closely examine and report on these issues. The study shows that although individual job preferences and career challenges vary among the respondents, those encountered by women and minorities seem to differ from their white male counterparts. A number of trends regarding employment decisions and career choices are both ongoing and emerging in the agricultural economics profession. However, the underlying issues guiding these trends are not well understood. For example, as a group, academic institutions are the single largest employers of agricultural economists with Ph.D.'s. Do individuals rank academic institutions as their top employment preference or are there limited employment opportunities for individuals with Ph.D.'s outside of academic communities? Are preferences for positions, academic as well as non-academic, stable across one's career cycle or do preferences change? Zepeda, Marchant, and Chang found that nearly 75% of female graduate students appear to self-select out of academic positions and indicate non-academic organizations as their initial employment choice. Why is this case? What factors influence an individual's employment choice? Do men, women, and ethnic minorities place similar importance on such factors? To address these questions and investigate the progress of agricultural economics professionals and professional choices, the Committee on Women in Agricultural Economics under a grant implemented a tracking system by the American Agricultural Economics Association Foundation. The objectives of this ongoing project are to track the progress and experiences of agricultural