Ever wondered why women get a raw deal at work? Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin has all the answers

• Goldin is acclaimed for her research in the gender pay gap for over 200 years, and the reasons that contributed to this anomaly.
• She also explains the role of contraceptive pills in expanding career and educational choices, especially in the fields of economics, law and medicine.
• Her contribution to economics has a far reaching impact on the lives of everyday men and women.
  

Winning a Nobel Memorial prize in Economics is an extraordinary feat in itself but Claudia Goldin’s accomplishment has significance far beyond the hallowed world of academia. A labour economist and economic historian, she was the first female researcher to be tenured in Harvard University’s economics department and only the third female recipient of the Nobel Prize in this field. She was announced as the 2023 winner for advancing “our understanding of women’s labour-market outcomes”.

In an era when diversity is top priority for corporations across the globe, this Nobel Prize could not have come at a better time. Goldin’s research explores the patterns of female market participation and the reasons behind the gender wage gap using data concerning the last 200 years. She showed that female participation forms a U-Shaped Curve. Participation decreased in the transition of society from an agrarian one to an industrial one as it was difficult for women to leave their homes to work in factories and began to increase in the early 20th century with the growth of the service sector.

Goldin’s research also talks about the role of contraceptive pills in expanding career and educational choices, especially in the fields of economics, law and medicine. This enabled a change in women’s attitudes towards employment and education as they began to see jobs as an important part of their identity. She described this as a ‘quiet revolution’.



Despite the rise in the levels of employed and educated women, there continues to be a significant earnings gap between men and women. Goldin primarily attributes this gap to the impact of a woman’s first child or the motherhood penalty. However, she has also studied the role of the’ greedy work’ phenomenon wherein jobs pay those who work longer hours disproportionately more per hour putting women who require more flexible hours at a disadvantage.

The topic of flexible work hours has particular relevance post the pandemic with many workplaces offering hybrid setups. She also noted that a female's educational choices, which are made at a relatively young age, are influenced by the experiences of females of previous generations.

The Nobel committee described her work as the ‘first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and labour market participation through the centuries’. Her insights and emphasis on women were path-breaking as women have historically been side-lined in the labor market.

Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, stated, “Thanks to Claudia Goldin’s ground-breaking research we now know much more about the underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future.”

Interestingly, Golden only discovered her passion for economics in the second year of her undergraduate degree at Cornell University. After earning a BA in economics, she obtained a PhD in industrial organization and labour economics from the University of Chicago. She started the Undergraduate Women in Economics Program in 2014, an endeavour to encourage more female economics majors.

Her contribution to economics has a far reaching impact on the lives of everyday men and women.