Economist and author Misty Heggeness has a clear mission behind her new book "Swiftynomics" : make economics more engaging, more accessible and more inviting for girls and women. "I want more women to go into the field of economics," she said over Zoom. "I want more women to see themselves as economic agents." The Overland Park, Kansas, author first felt the spark to write during the pandemic, when she was a research economist at the United States Census Bureau. As she began producing her own statistics on mothers' labor force participation, she was surprised at how much she enjoyed translating economics for a wider audience.
At the same time, she found herself inspired by Taylor Swift's creative surge for her "Folklore" and "Evermore" albums. "I had been paying much closer attention to her career since 2019 when I saw the music video for 'The Man,'" she said. By early 2022, she knew Swift would be the "muse" through whom she could tell a bigger story about modern women in the economy.
"Writing this book gave me so much joy," she said. "I love interpreting. I want more women to find a space for themselves in either studying economics or thinking like an economist." "I've got three young men in my class and the rest are young women," she said. Yet when her class clears out and the next, Introduction to Microeconomics, files in, "it's three young ladies and the rest are young men." For Heggeness, the contrast proves her point: If economics were taught in a way that met young women where they were, more would stay.
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