Virtually Nonexistent: Gender and Racial Representation in Online K-12 Economics Lessons

Women and Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) are underrepresented in economics. Among the factors contributing to the underrepresentation of these groups, past research has demonstrated a lack of diversity in introductory economics textbooks. We extend this research on representation to examples in economics lessons designed for K-12 audiences. We find that female and BIPOC examples are underrepresented. When present they are less likely to be economists, policymakers, or businesspeople. We also explore how author demographics predict diversity of examples. Authors and teams that include women are more likely to use female examples.