Marianne Ferber
Background[edit]
Ferber was born in Czechoslovakia and received her B.A. at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada and her Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.
Her husband, Robert Ferber, was hired by the University of Illinois to teach in the economics department in 1948, but strict nepotism rules at Illinois prevented her from being hired as a full-time professor. Yet the economics department did hire her on a semester-by-semester basis because of a severe teacher shortage. In 1971, she was promoted from lecturer to assistant professor. In 1979, she became a full professor.[2]
Career and awards[edit]
Ferber was a professor of economics and served as head of women's studies (from 1979–1983 and 1991–1993) at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; subsequently a professor emerita. From 1993-1995, she was the Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor at Radcliffe College. She served as a professor of economics at the University of Illinois for 38 years.[2]
In the 1970s, she was a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession. Later, she became a founding member of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) and in 1995 and 1996 served as IAFFE’s president.[3]
Also, she was the president of the Midwest Economic Association and received the McMaster University 1996 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Arts.