CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 9 (Photo by Carlin Stiehl/Getty Images)
Claudia Goldin is a renowned economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2023 for her work on women’s labour market outcomes. She is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She has been awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.”
Goldin’s Findings on Women’s Labour Force
She found that in many developed countries women’s wages tend to fall or grow slower than men’s after they have children. This is partly because mothers face more challenges in meeting the employers’ demands of constant availability and flexibility, which are often associated with higher pay and promotions. She termed this the “last chapter” of the gender gap, as it remains even when women have similar levels of education and experience as men.
The birth of the first child is a major factor that affects women’s careers and wages, as they face more parenting responsibilities and less flexibility at work. This is what she calls the “parenthood effect.”
Goldin discovered that women’s work choices follow a U-shaped pattern as countries develop. When the economy is poor, women work mostly in agriculture. When the economy grows, newer technologies are adopted in the agricultural sector, and new factory jobs are created, they are taken up mostly by men. Consequently, women tend to withdraw from the workforce. However, with further growth, service sector jobs are created which are then gradually taken up by women, who by now have access to higher education.
These are often the jobs that pay on a per-hour basis and the hourly rates go up with the increase in the number of hours the worker puts in. Goldin’s termed these as “Greedy Jobs”. These are jobs that have gone up in the economy of late. As women take up most of the burden of care work, which entails taking care of children and attending to household chores, they are unable to get into these jobs, resulting in a pay gap.
She suggests some ways to make work less greedy, such as changing the culture of long hours, rewarding output rather than input, and providing more options for part-time or flexible work. She has also advocated for more flexible and adaptable work arrangements that can benefit both employers and employees, regardless of their gender or parental status.
Goldin’s Findings and Indian Scenario
In India, women’s labour force participation follows the trajectory said by Goldin to quite an extent. The segment where women’s employment has increased in recent years has been formal salaried service sector jobs. However, in many cases, this leads to a dual burden as they must juggle household responsibilities with low-paying jobs, especially in economies where secure employment opportunities are limited, such as in the informal sector. Therefore, India should focus on balancing care work with the generation of jobs in the services that are flexible and do not compromise on the productivity of these jobs. Investments in both rural and urban caregiving infrastructure like creches, anganwadis, etc. will go a long way in making the Indian economy prosperous and equal for women workers.
Criticism of Goldin’s Work
Goldin’s research primarily focuses on the American and high-income country context, making it challenging to apply her findings to low-income settings. In India, women start working during times of economic distress, and they often end up in low-paying jobs. The problem is compounded by the women’s role as primary caregivers in Indian households and a heavy lack of care institutions which bounds women to household duties. Goldin’s work does not address these concerns which is a subject of debate.
Further, understanding women’s participation in the labour force in India requires data on different factors like caste, religion, etc., which determines the type of work women have access to and their bargaining power. Excluding these can often result in an incomplete understanding of the situation. Her work also falls short of addressing the various patriarchal norms that set barriers to women’s workforce participation.
However, Goldin’s work is an acknowledgement of women’s work in economics and a reminder of the long road ahead for achieving gender equality in the labour market.