She uncovered key drivers of gender differences in the labour market.
Women are grossly underrepresented in the global labour market, and when they do work, they earn less than men. Claudia Goldin USA labour economist, collected more than 200 years of data from the United States, which she used to analyse the way and the reason that exist how and why gender gaps in earnings and employment rates have changed over time.
Claudia Goldin found out that women's labour force participation did not show an upward trend over this entire period, but instead formed a U-shaped curve. Married women's labour force participation declined with the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society in the early 19th century, but then increased with the growth of the service sector in the early 20th century. Goldin explained this pattern as the result of structural change and evolving social norms regarding women’s responsibilities for the home and family.
In the twentieth century, women have achieved higher educational level, and in most high-income countries it is now substantially higher than that of men.
Despite economic growth and the increasing proportion of working women in the 20th century, the income gap between women and men barely closed over a long period of time. According to Goldin, part of the explanation lies in the fact that educational decisions that affect lifelong career opportunities are made at a relatively young age and their expectations are influenced by previous generations, such as their mothers who did not return to work until the children were grown.
Historically, much of the gender gap in earnings could be explained by differences in education and occupational choice. Goldin has shown, however, that most of this earnings gap today exists between women and men in the same occupation and that it largely emerges with the birth of the first child.
Her findings extend well beyond the borders of the United States, and similar patterns have been observed in many other countries.
“Understanding the role of women in the labour is important for society. 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,”
Says Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences.
Her research gives us a better understanding of the labour markets of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Claudia Goldin, born 1946 in New York, NY, USA. PhD 1972 from University of Chicago, IL, USA. Professor at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.