How economic growth doesn't always mean more jobs for women
Discover the groundbreaking research of Claudia Goldin, the 2023 Nobel Prize winner. This video profiles the economist who corrected the mistaken assumption that economic growth automatically increases female employment, revealing the complex historical forces that shape the gender wage gap.
Claudia Goldin, a professor at Harvard, uses historical perspective to explain why gender differences in earnings and employment persist. Her work challenges the conventional belief that economic growth uniformly creates more paid work for women. Instead, she identifies how structural changes—such as the 19th-century transition from agrarian to industrial societies—can actually decrease the participation of married women.
By studying the late 18th century to the present, Goldin explores how evolving social norms and factors like the impact of 'the Pill' influence career and marriage decisions. Her research into the origins of economic disparities has fundamentally enriched the fields of labor economics and economic history.
Source: Claudia Goldin | Women in Economics
