Linda Scott
Author, Founder, and Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford


Linda Scott is the author of The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Women’s Empowerment, as well as Emeritus DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Oxford. She founded, and is now Senior Adviser to, the Global Business Coalition for Women’s Economic Empowerment (GBC4WEE) and founded DoubleXEconomy LLC, a consulting firm specializing in women’s economic empowerment.

For the past 15 years, Professor Scott has worked with multinational corporations, international agencies, national governments, and global NGOs to design, implement, and test programs to better include women in the world economy. She is formerly Senior Consulting Fellow to Chatham House, the Royal Institute for International Affairs, and she founded The Power Shift Forum for Women in the World Economy. She is currently working with the World Bank to build new practices for assessing women-owned businesses on a national level and with USAID to further sensitize the international aid community to the impact of gender inequality on poverty.

All of these engagements with major international institutions, corporations, and governments have required public speaking. Professor Scott has given many lunchtime and evening talks, been on many panels, and keynoted many conferences. In particular, as leader of the GBC4WEE, she spoke on behalf of these corporations’ women’s programs in venues like the World Bank and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Professor Scott has been a popular, award-winning teacher and lecturer at the University of Illinois and the University of Oxford, and is now a visiting professor at Brown University where she teaches “Gender, Economics, and Entrepreneurship.” She has taught in a wide variety of contexts, including executive education and alumni programs that require entertaining as well as informative presentations, as well as large lecture classes where images, sound, and film were integrated into the material to keep the attention of a big group. Professor Scott is known for her ability to make complex, specialized material accessible, entertaining, even funny, and she has the reputation and command to fill a room consistently.

​Professor Scott was selected as one of the Top 25 Global Thinkers by Prospect magazine in 2015. Her concept of the Double X Economy, a perspective that describes the global economy of women not just as consumers or workers, but as investors, donors, and entrepreneurs, was featured by the Financial Times video series “Thinking Big.”

​Many other world press vehicles, from The Economist to BBC, have covered Scott’s research. In addition to her own blog, The Double X Economy, Scott has blogged for the World Economic Forum, Forbes, and Bloomberg on gender issues. Her book The Double X Economy was published in 2020 by Farrar Straus & Giroux in the US and Faber & Faber in the UK.

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HARDCOVER
THE DOUBLE X ECONOMYThe Epic Potential of Women's Empowerment
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Linda Scott coined the phrase “Double X Economy” to address the systemic exclusion of women from the world financial order.

The Double X Economy The global system of economic constraints on women, the tragedies it has produced, and the enormous benefit to humanity of eliminating gender inequality. The Real Science Behind Myths of Male Dominance A point-by-point debunking of long-standing excuses for male dominance, such as whether our animal ancestors were male dominant, whether female brains are less capable of math, whether men are hard-wired to be violent, and whether it is natural for mothers to stay home. Why We Still Don’t Have Gender Equality in the Workplace A debunking of the excuses made for women’s unequal pay and advancement, followed by a critical reorientation toward the factors actually slowing progress. Motherhood Matters A discussion of the “motherhood penalty,” the “mommy track,” and other ways that mothers are stigmatized and held back in the workplace, a take-down of the excuses made for mistreating mothers at work, an outline of the damage being done to the society when motherhood is not supported, and a proposal for fixing the whole mess in a way that will benefit all. 360 Degrees of Exclusion Inequality in paid employment is only one part of women’s economic marginalization. An outline of the ways women are excluded from finance, international trade—indeed, the money system as a whole. How Women Became Unequal The painful story of the subordination of women in the world economy over thousands of years, ending with an emphasis on the hope visible in the present and the steps that can be taken to end this dark narrative once and for all.

Check out The Financial Time’s review of The Double X Economy

Check out The Guardian’s review of The Double X Economy

ReadThe Double X Economy Blog

Follow Linda Scott on Twitter.

Praise for The Double X Economy "Professor Scott shines a light on women’s essential and often invisible contributions to our global economy—while combining insight, analysis, and interdisciplinary data to make a compelling and actionable case for unleashing women’s economic power." - Melinda Gates, Philanthropist and Co-Founder, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

"In the Double X Economy, Linda Scott lays the groundwork for how the global community can create a future where economic inequality is no longer an obstacle for women. Linda’s ability to breakdown the economic barriers facing women and provide tangible solutions for multinational corporations, national governments, and individuals is remarkable. This book is the practical rallying cry we need to address the most significant challenge of this century and a great resource for anyone fighting for women’s equality"- Laurie Adams, CEO, Women for Women International

"Linda Scott has done a great service to women (and men) as she outlines how, by empowering women economically, countries can accelerate their growth and enhance the well being of citizens. The Double X Economy is a tour de monde of the barriers holding women back and the potential that women can have. Her book skewers myth upon myth about patriarchy, male dominance, and women's historic roles in society. The Double X Economy is a logical and fascinating read with research that is accessible and that can be used by anyone who wants to show, unerringly, that women are as valuable to economies and societies as men--if only given equal chance to succeed." - Laura Liswood, Secretary-General, The Council of Women World Leaders

"The Double X Economy is a powerful presentation on the costs of gender inequality for all of society. Linda Scott makes a strong evidence-based case — interspersed with compelling real life examples from around the globe — for women’s economic empowerment. If we want to grow economies and inclusive prosperity long into the future, there is a solution staring us in the face: unleash the power of women’s full economic participation. As Linda Scott shows, this is the great imperative of our time." - Melanne Verveer, First U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University

"Linda Scott brings a powerful blend of absolute commitment to gender equality, deep expertise in the economic forces at play and unique hands-on experience in countries across the world to The Double X Economy. This book helps you see in new ways how we can all work together to advance societies, provide equal opportunities and, as she puts it, end “some of the world’s most tragic problems.” - Josh Levs, author of All In: How Our Work-First Culture Fails Dads, Families, and Businesses—And How We Can Fix It Together

"A pathbreaking contribution! Linda Scott provides powerful evidence on the need for action to end women’s economic exclusion and to positively reshape the economies of the world." - Michael Kaufman, author of The Time Has Come: Why Men Must Join the Gender Equality Revolution

"THE DOUBLE X ECONOMY is a thought-provoking, data-rich argument for what society and world economies sacrifice by excluding women. This is a crucial book on a crucial subject."- Dr. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Under-Secretary-General, Executive Director of UN Women