The Long Road Towards Women’s Equality in the Labour Market : Claudia Goldin’s Research on Historical Trends and Contributing Factors

Abstract

Claudia Goldin won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on women in the labour market. Her body of work provides a broad, data-driven, historical overview of gender inequalities and evidence of the impacts of specific changes and institutional elements. We review her main findings regarding the evolution of women’s employment and earnings in light of key historical events. She documented a U-shaped labour supply curve over time, which challenged past notions of a monotonous positive relationship between economic development and women’s labour supply. Her work brought attention to complex forces that shaped the past, such as the rise of factory jobs, service-sector jobs and the contraceptive pill. Her research also points to remaining causes of inequalities, such as high-earning professions that disproportionately favour long work hours and continuous job attachment. Her work contributes to our knowledge of this social issue and has catalysed new areas of research.