There lies an underlying assumption that as there is higher economic growth there would be a higher participation of women in the workforce. However, Claudia Goldin, the awardee of Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (also referred as Nobel Prize in Economics) for 2023, has debunked the assumption in her research work stretching over years. While talking about women in economics, Claudia has successfully established herself as The Woman in Economics by being the first woman to have won the award solo and the third woman to have won the prize. Her work gives us the “first comprehensive account of women’s earning and labour market participation through the centuries”. She is an icon and this has now been globally realised and acknowledged.

Through her work, she provides us with comprehensive factors that drive the participation of women in the workforce. She has gone through over 200 years of archives of the United States to study the gender-wage parity and women employment rates trends and factors that impact it. The participation of women in the workforce has continued to be small and their participation too results in lesser income as compared to men. The key highlights of her research have been the introduction of the U-shaped curve, which depicts how expectations from women influence their participation and how the wage gap increases post the birth of the first child tagging it as  “the parenthood effect”.

In her work, she has corrected the US Census and public data pertaining to women participation and concludes that in the 1890s, the participation of women was much higher as compared to what the data presents. Given the agrarian nature of the economy, once a woman was recorded as a “wife” in the census, her contributions in the fields and with the livestock were overlooked. There was a need to acknowledge this and count her as a part of the workforce. As the economy shifted from agrarian to industrial, the work having shifted out of homes, made it difficult for women to participate. Initially, women did participate in manufacturing, however, it didn’t sustain for long. Women re-entered the labour force with the establishment of the service sector and better educational opportunities and this has seen some positive growth with rising opportunities and higher freedom. One of her revolutionary conclusions here was how with contraceptives being introduced, a positive push was generated, as women now had more control over their situations and choices and thus, could prioritise basis their aspirations.

Irrespective of modernisation and higher education, with higher income countries noticing trends of women being more educated than men, the wage gap still persisted and showed no sign of closing. Goldin enunciates how women for generations have been trying to balance both a career and a family, especially with the rise of feminism. However, true equity still remains unapproachable. In the earlier 20th century, once a woman got married, she was expected to quit her career and manage the household. Her work highlights how in the first half of the 20th century, 20 percent of women found gainful employment but the share of married women in this only stood at 5 percent. Towards the end of the century, women decided to re-enter the labour force only once their children had grown up, ending up at a disadvantage due to their initial educational choices which was made during a time they were not expected to enter the workforce. Women also faced discrimination at work as employers preferred to employee individuals with “long and uninterrupted careers”. The long-standing social norms played a huge role in her delayed integration with the economic growth. This also led to the initial onset of wage-pay gap based on gender. Detrimental legislations like “marriage bars” also hindered this participation as women had to discontinue being teachers or office workers once they were married. Added with the women’s own expectation of her future career, having seen their mothers, the employment rates of women show very slow growth.

In her 2010 article, co-authored with Marianne Bertrand and Lawrence Katz, Goldin demonstrates how the initial pay gap is small; this however, changes once the first child is born. A child needs full-time care, and women are generally the ones to make this sacrifice. They announced that seeing how the economy currently is a “greedy economy”, the more you work overtime and are able to dedicate extra time, the higher the earnings will be. A woman is unable to participate in the greedy economy because of both her child and the expectations of and for her. Even if there was a push for 50-50 division of work, both the husband and wife would be unable to participate in the greedy economy and yes, the household would be happier, but it would also be poorer. Regardless, it’s a no-win game as even if the husband participates, he is still sacrificing his time with the child.

The sheer glory of her work is grounded in addressing societal factors and norms while looking at their economic positioning. Instead of simply acknowledging the lack of ideal job opportunities and agreeing with the behind-door-conversations about discrimination, she has managed to highlight these issues in her research and identify the actual underlying factors that need to be addressed. Her work is highly relatable and makes a woman feel seen and understood. Even though her work is in the context of the United States, these issues are globally prevalent and call for individual nation states to align her findings with their specific ground realities and take corrective measures accordingly.

India currently ranks 135 out of 146 countries in the 2022 Global Gender Gap Index. We ranked 140 in 2021, showing positive growth; however slow. The ILO has predicted that it will take India easily 70 years to close the gender pay gap. Even with competitive academic degrees, many women do not enter the workforce due to the combined factors of family duties, a workplace that is hostile and a dearth of aligning work opportunities. Add to this, their contribution at home remains to be unseen and economically unaccounted. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, on paper, assures 100 days of work; however, in reality, it typically translates into only 45-55 days of work. The deeply patriarchal nature of our society inflates discrimination as even in this day and age, we are subjected to narratives suggesting that the higher a woman’s education and career drive, the less likely she is to have a family. This thought process is so firmly entrenched that such views are often proudly endorsed in popular culture and international media, such as in the case of extremely popular modern day shows like “Indian Matchmaking”.

Unless more attention is paid to women safety and a change in the societal outlook, issues pertaining to women employment and wage gap would continue to persist. Instead of pushing discrimination and bias further, we need to curb it, and push for higher freedom for women ensuring better educational opportunities and improved percentage of women in the Indian workforce. Goldin’s work needs further exploration in the Indian context to push for more women in the labour force, lower gender discrimination, and reduce the gender pay gap.