Looking back at history, there has been a spillage of the blood of women at the hands of patriarchy, affecting their socio-economic stature drastically. Not only in Bangladesh, but people, especially women, throughout the globe have been victims of the fangs of chauvinism. Often, the effects came to be seen physically, and other times, it was, well, metaphorical.

However, what you see now is the result of the initiative taken centuries ago. Faces like Simone De Beauvoir, Malala Yousufzai and Wangari Maathai have been pioneers responsible for bringing a social/political/economic stance equivalent to the male’s contribution in each own’s time. Malala Yousufzai, in this scenario, is the perfect example of women’s empowerment. In 2014, she won the Nobel Prize for promoting children’s rights and advocating for universal education.

Thus, a woman of 77, Claudia Dale Goldin, who happens to be a Professor of Economics at Harvard University, emerged to be the third woman to win the Nobel Prize for researching and uncovering the reasons for gender gaps in labour force participation and earnings. Claudia has dedicated her life towards the gradual development of women and their empowerment through her academic research.

The flight of her stardom being a Nobel Laureate took off during her presidential term in the Economic History Association in 1999-2000 and again during her time in the American Economic Association in 2013.

The actual happenstance of her victory with the Nobel Prize dated back to her discerning herself with the groundbreaking publication of the book Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820 to 1860: A Quantitative History (University of Chicago Press, 1976), where she explored the ins and outs of urban slavery in American South within the span of 40 years.

She authored and co-authored many books regarding women’s development over the years, which can not only be catered to the female category, but the male population will undoubtedly be able to gain knowledge from exploring the little corners of femininity and the world that wraps around it.

Two of the most influential books she ever authored are Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women and Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity. While the first one traverses gender discrimination inequity, especially for women, through some quantitative historical methods while refuting the notion that women’s employment advances were a response to social revolution rather than long-run economic progress, the latter brilliantly explores the ways that women have dealt with the challenge of juggling work and family during the radical shift in gender equality that occurred in the twentieth century. It also explains why absolute fairness for couples with two careers is still, unfortunately, out of reach.

The significance of her working papers on gender-related issues from socio-economic perspectives provides severe clarity on some important and overlooked issues if we trace back her footprints to the beginning of her career. The most imminent of her academic papers in which she flourished are Hours Flexibility and the Gender Gap in Pay, which was published in 2015, in which she finds that, when an occupation’s wages rise non-linearly with increased work hours, there is a greater gender gap, which means that a worker who invests 60 hours a week, will earn more than twice as much as a worker who puts in 30 hours. Career and Marriage in the Age of the Pill, published in 2000, of course, remains another highly influential, ground-breaking research from her field that serves greatly towards the eventual evolution of women, which, albeit acts as a rebirth to women empowerment, till date.

In each of her accomplishments, Claudia is leaving a mark, paving her way towards more future awards for her significance towards her field of study, one project at a time. It might as well be concluded that the calibre she showed in identifying the gender gaps in both the economy and employment caught the Nobel Committee’s attention, that her results certainly proved deserving of the award.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), “Goldin is frequently cited as one of the ten most influential female economists in the world. She pioneered the study of women’s role in the economy 40 years ago, inspired new generations of female economists, and helped bring gender economics into the mainstream.” To this day, students majoring in economics look up to her and her work is undoubtedly talked about during class lectures.

Author- Sultanul Arefeen