In October of this year, Professor Claudia Goldin of Harvard University was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. At 77 years old, she is only the 3rd woman to win the prize, and the first to do it alone. Her work, which has spanned several decades, focuses on the participation of American women in the workforce and the history of the wage gap. Professor Goldin received her Bachelor's Degree from Cornell University and her Graduate’s Degree from the University of Chicago. Her early work with mentor and Nobel winner Rober Fogel introduced her to her passion for women's studies. The two studied American slavery and its economic implications. This led Professor Goldin to wondering about both Black and White women in their workforce. Soon thereafter, Goldin began her detective work, painstakingly uncovering hidden records about the working lives of American women. As time progressed, she published numerous journal articles and wrote her first book, entitled “Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women” in 1990. Her award-winning scholarship contributed to her earning of a position in Harvard's Economics Department, where she has been teaching for the past 34 years. From her interviews, the passion and dedication Professor Goldin has for her students as she credits them for pushing her “to the frontiers of knowledge every day" is palpable and obvious.
Goldin’s ongoing research has led her to the conclusion that the wage gap is not due to “biological differences but to differences in the division of unpaid caregiving responsibilities between heterosexual couples.” Her work is still relevant today as she compared the uptick in women’s employment during World War II to the post COVID 19 rise. According to her research and analysis, the upward trends are due to the availability of daycare programs for children and the flexibility to work from home.
Professor Claudia Goldin’s research, some of the earliest work on the topic, has exposed the hidden narrative behind the wage gap and the challenges that working women face.
Information from The Harvard Gazette Article: ‘Those inequalities are inequalities that occur within households’
Picture from: The Harvard Gazette