Claudia Goldin: the Harvard economic historian, is finally getting her due.
I was jubilant after learning about Claudia Goldin winning this year’s Nobel Economics Prize. The reason is that she won the laurel for her exceptional work in the gender pay gap.
She analyzed and exposed the cause of deep-rooted wage and labor market inequality between men and women for decades.
Personally, Ms Goldin’s victory reflects a win for all women. Especially, me, as I religiously follow the movements in DEI. DEI gained momentum only after the introduction of SDGs and ESG regulations. Even today, globally, there exists a wide gap in the gender equality matrix. The majority of the countries are forced to reduce the gap, NOT because they want to hire women; but to tick the box in the right column.
Here, Ms. Claudia Goldin’s courage to walk the unconventional path, and study a non-conventional subject, with little reference, is applause-worthy. What fascinated me more was her detection techniques (she calls herself a detective). Get to the bottom of the problem, dig out facts, analyze, and solve it!
I am awestruck by her vigor to work for the women in the labor workforce. They belong to the most marginalized, unorganized section of the society. Gender disparity and pay gaps are a norm in the industry. However, Ms Goldin’s research and the facts are helping policymakers in formulating the right structure to bridge the gap.
Her research covered five distinguished periods in history. She has read about, spoken and researched about women starting from:
• 1900-1920: A few women gained college degrees. But they had to choose between work and family.
• 1920-1940: The women left the workforce to start, and focus on families during the Great Depression
• Post World War II -They were discouraged from entering the workforce to raise families
• 1960-1980s: Women benefited from the birth control pill, more women entered the workforce, and many chose not to have children.
From the 1980s to the present, women are still navigating these dynamics. However, today, they have the benefit of evolving technology which provides them with greater flexibility on when to have children. And yet, the grinding pay gap persists.
For women, family is a significant deciding factor in their careers. While men are rewarded with higher pay for taking up more extensive portfolios, for women, those roles remain a “greedy job”, as termed by Ms. Claudia Golden.
So come December. Ms Claudia Goldin, the Harvard economic historian, will receive her award formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. I will be ONE among the millions of women who will loudly cheer for one of our own, a tribute from INDIA.