Renowned American economist Gita Gopinath fired shots at the high-stakes summit between the United States and China, calling it the "end of meritocracy", in a post on X on Thursday.
Gopinath was pointing to the blatant absence of women in a meeting between the world's largest economies.
"A painting of the end of meritocracy: A meeting of the two largest economies and not one woman at the table," she remarked in the post.
Even as women of the world make longer strides in professional spaces, they remain under-represented in the field of economics. Worldwide, the proportion of female economists stands somewhere around 27%, as per Research Paper in Economics (RePec) data.
The share of women starting economics PhDs in America trended downward for the third consecutive year in 2024, according to Harvard Business School data.
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Internet Reacts
The post has riled up a section of netizens, most of whom believe that the reason why Beijing and Washington are the two largest economies is because no women are making decisions.
"This is exactly what a meritocracy looks like, actually," said one user while another remarked, "That is why they are the two largest economies."
Others simply resorted to calling it "Natures design" or pinning the blame on women for not doing well enough to "earn a seat" on the table.
However, some sided with the former IMF Chief Economist and called out the gender imbalance of the meeting.
"The world's two largest economies deciding the future, and not a single woman at the table. Diversity at the highest levels isn't just optics- it's about broadening perspectives. When half the population is missing, merit is compromised. We can do better," said one user.
"The future starts to look like a boardroom of Big 4 penguins: same suits, same faces, same thinking… & somehow they still call it innovation," pointed out another.
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