Barbara Bergmann
Professor Emeritus

PhD, Harvard University

Research Interests
Sex roles in the economy, labor economics, computer simulation of economicssystems.

Brief Biography
Barbara R. Bergmann writes on economic and social policy, with recent works on Social Security, child care, poverty, women's place in the economy and the family, and the labor market problems of women and African Americans. She is Professor Emerita of Economics at the University of Maryland and at American University in Washington, DC.

She received the Ph.D. from Harvard University. Dr. Bergmann served as a senior staff member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Kennedy Administration. Other government experience includes service as Senior Economic Adviser with the Agency for International Development, and as an economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She has served on advisory committees to the Congressional Budget Office and the Bureau of the Census. In the 1980s, she wrote a monthly column on economic affairs for the New York Times Sunday Business Section.

She has served as President of the Eastern Economic Association, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, the American Association of University Professors and the International Association for Feminist Economics.

• America’s Child Care Problem: The Way Out (with Suzanne Helburn). New York: Palgrave, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
• The Economic Emergence of Women (Second edition) New York: Palgrave, St. Martin’s Press, 2002.
• Is Social Security Broke?: A Cartoon Guide to the Issues (cartoons by Jim Bush). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2000.
• “The Only Ticket to Equality: Total Androgyny, Male Style”, Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, Volume 9, Spring 1998: 75-86.
• In Defense of Affirmative Action. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1996
• Saving Our Children From Poverty: What the United States Can Learn From France. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996.
• "Becker's Theory of the Family: Preposterous Conclusions", Feminist Economics, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1995. (Reprinted in Challenge, January/February 1996.)
• "Child Support Awards: State Guidelines Versus Public Opinion" (with Sherry Wetchler). Family Law Quarterly, Fall 1995, 29,3: 483-493.
• "A Budget-Based Definition of Poverty, With an Application to Single-Parent Families", (with Trudi J. Renwick). Journal of Human Resources 28:1. Winter 1993. 1-24.

[phone] 202-885-3770
[fax] 202-885-3790
econ@american.edu

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Updated: 09/23/2004