Harvard Prof. Gets Nobel Prize For Research On Women In The Workforce

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for her work uncovering key drivers of gender differences in the labor market, the Nobel Prize committee announced in a news release Monday.

Goldin, who was born in New York in 1946 and graduated from the University of Chicago, provided the first comprehensive account of women’s earnings and participation in the labor force through the centuries, the committee noted.

"Women are vastly underrepresented in the global labour market and, when they work, they earn less than men," the news release reads.

Goldin's research, which included deep dives on 200 years of data from the United States, revealed that female participation in the labor market did not have an upward trend over the time period. It instead forms a U-shape that aligns with structural change and evolving social norms regarding women's responsibilities in the home and for their families, according to the committee.

"Historically, much of the gender gap in earnings could be explained by differences in education and occupational choices," the committee continued. "However, Goldin has shown that the bulk of this earnings difference is now between and women in the same occupation, and that it largely arises with the birth of the first child."

Along with the honor of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences—issued by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel—Goldin will be awarded 11 million Swedish kronor, which equates to more than a million in U.S. dollars.

But her impact is one that money can't buy.

"Understanding women’s role in the labour is important for society," Jakob Svensson, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, wrote in the news release. "Thanks to Claudia Goldin’s groundbreaking research we now know much more about the underlying factors and which barriers may need to be addressed in the future."