Graham Memorial Lecture: Heather Sarsons
Jan 30, 2025
3:30PM to 5:00PM

Date/Time
Date(s) - 30/01/2025
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Join us at the end of the month for our 2025 Graham Memorial Lecture, jointly with the School of Labour Studies! This year we have Heather Sarsons joining us from Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia.
Jack and Kay Graham
Jack Graham, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics, died in February 1993, at the age of 77. Prior to coming to McMaster, Jack had been a student at the University of Toronto and at Oxford University (the latter as a Rhodes Scholar), and had served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, at United College in Winnipeg, and at the University of Manitoba. Jack arrived at McMaster in 1949, and took over immediately as head of the Department, remaining in this position until 1962 (he was also later Chairman of the Department of Economics, from 1968 to 1971). Between 1949 and his retirement in 1981, he was an extremely active member of the University community. He was, for example, centrally involved in the establishment of the Labour Studies Program, and in the committees that laid the groundwork for the School of Social Work.
His academic interests within economics related primarily to the labour market and to comparative systems. The former meant that he became closely associated with the union movement in the Hamilton area, which led to his involvement with Labour Studies, and also to many requests for his services as a mediator or arbitrator. As with all such demands on his time, he met them with a good grace that many of us envied, and which we remember with great affection.
Kay Graham died in February 1996. Kay was a school teacher before she devoted herself to her roles as a wife and mother. She was an active volunteer in community activities and always showed her care for others less fortunate than herself. She shared with Jack a strong concern for social justice, and worked tirelessly to raise awareness of such issues.
This lecture is in honour of Jack and Kay’s memory, made possible by the generosity of the many people who responded to the launching of a fund to finance the annual series. Further donations to the fund are most welcome.
2025 Graham Memorial Lecture
Heather’s research interests are in labour, behavioural, and social economics with a particular interest in understanding gender inequality and discrimination.
Her talk is titled, “Measuring Gender Attitudes and their Economic Implications”.
Abstract
Gender attitudes and norms have been shown to affect gender inequality across many domains, such as work, health, and politics. When we measure gender attitudes, though, we typically focus on the attitudes that women face. For example, surveys ask respondents whether they believe that children will suffer if their mother works or whether women are too emotional for politics. Far less attention has been paid to the attitudes that constrain men’s behaviour. This talk will present results from three papers that seek to understand the norms and attitudes that men face, and how these attitudes affect both men’s and women’s well-being. We first show that standard survey questions do not adequately capture individuals’ views regarding gender equality. We then establish a set of new survey questions to measure the attitudes that both women and men face. Finally, we show that developing proper measures of gender attitudes can help explain inequality between men and women both within and across households.
Join us Thursday, January 30 at 3:30, Council Chambers, Gilmour Hall 111.
Please register here to ensure seating.
Following the lecture you are welcome to stay for the reception, to mingle with guests and enjoy light refreshments.
You can view Heather’s professional website here.