Claudia Goldin wins 2023 Economics Nobel Prize for research on workplace gender gap

Source: The post is based on the article “Claudia Goldin wins 2023 Economics Nobel Prize for research on workplace gender gap” published in “The Hindu” on 10th October 2023

What is the News?

The Nobel Prize for economics has been awarded to Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin for her research that has advanced the understanding of the gender gap in the labour market.

Who is Claudia Goldin?

Claudia Goldin was born in 1946.She currently holds the position of Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Work on Gender gap in labour market: Claudia Goldin’s extensive research on gender disparities in the labor market spanning over 200 years reveals several key insights:

– U-Shaped Female Labor Force Participation: Female participation in the labor market doesn’t show a consistent upward trend over time.Instead, it follows a U-shaped curve.Initially, it declined as society shifted from agrarian to industrial in the early 19th century.It later increased with the growth of the service sector in the early 20th century.This pattern is influenced by changes in economic structure and evolving societal norms about women’s roles.

– Education and the Contraceptive Pill: Women’s education levels have steadily risen throughout the 20th century and often surpass those of men in high-income countries.Access to contraception, notably the contraceptive pill, played a vital role in enabling women to plan their careers more effectively.

– Persistent Earnings Gap: Despite modernization, economic growth and increased female employment, the earnings gap between men and women remained largely unchanged for a long time.

– This is because young women’s expectations for their careers are often shaped by the experiences of previous generations such as their mothers who delayed their return to work until their children were older.

– Impact of Motherhood: Goldin’s research indicates that the bulk of the gender earnings gap now exists between men and women in the same occupation and it primarily emerges after the birth of the first child.This suggests that parenthood significantly influences the gender pay gap in contemporary times.