Goldin's Nobel Prize: Women value flexible work greatly

 Goldin's Nobel Prize: Women value flexible work greatly

I had just taken my first drink of black coffee when I saw the news that Harvard University professor Claudia Goldin had received the Nobel Prize for economics. Though she was the third woman to get the award, she was the first to do it by herself, and I thought, "That's well-deserved," as I read. And I thought, "I should write about this." My still-caffeine-free brain lurched into action, cataloguing everything about my morning that could be changed (meetings, laundry, my own breakfast) and everything that couldn't (diaper changes, day-care drop off, my toddler's breakfast) while a few grey cells started outlining a draft.

The majority of people are familiar with Goldin from her research on how parenthood and marriage might affect women's careers. I became acutely conscious of my conflicting commitments to my job and to my children. How soon could I finish this essay? just as fast as my motherly responsibilities would allow. As harsh as the coffee, irony was.

It's time to pay tribute to Goldin's work more than ever. The gender gap in the US has shrunk to its lowest level ever because to a post-pandemic comeback in women's job participation. This has come as a welcome surprise after a sharp fall in 2020 when covid slammed America's female-dominated service industry. Despite predictions of a recession, a healthy economy, the reopening of schools and daycare centers, and growing incomes (which help to offset high daycare expenses) are all factors that contribute to women's workforce resilience. Also significant is the increased flexibility that businesses will provide in 2022 and 2023. Women have always required greater flexibility to make a career outside the home since they bear the majority of the burden of taking care of the home and raising the next generation.

Flexibility is important to moms' ability to make money, according to Goldin's research. She has analyzed decades of history in her epic study of women's labor. Additionally, she focused specifically on certain occupations. Her study has shown that what is now known as "remote work" has long been an important component of women's economic participation. Women's participation in the formal sector began to wane as the industrial age forced employees into offices and factories. Prior to the 19th century, more women were employed when more labor was done at home. When seen in this light, remote labor from the covid period is not an exception but rather a return to the norm.

Other studies by Goldin have shown that when the job is modified to allow both flexibility and substitutability, women's incomes rise. Her standard illustration is pharmacists. When independent pharmacies predominated, pharmacists had to be on call, and the majority of them were males. However, the emergence of chain pharmacies made it possible for pharmacists to work in shifts, filling in for one another as required. Among high-earning professions today, pharmacy has one of the narrowest gender salary discrepancies [in the US]. It's a profession where women predominate.

Couples have had to make challenging choices due to the large number of employment that have historically restricted employees flexibility and substitution. Here, Goldin has shown that women are often the ones who give up their professions for their husbands' occupations. Rarely is the opposite true. She once observed, "Until we also have couple equity, we will never have gender equality." One of the reasons why I and so many other authors constantly bringing up the gender imbalance in domestic work and caregiving is because of this. There are several methods for work to change to accommodate a child's schedule, but very few for a child's requirements to adjust to a work schedule.

And according to Goldin, who spoke on a podcast produced by the Harvard Business Review in 2021, many of the highest-paying positions today are time-hungry and need working on the weekends and in the nights, sometimes with little notice. In these positions, "doubling the number of hours more than doubles the earnings," and often results in much higher delayed profits: "You make partner, you get tenure, you get that important first promotion." Men generally hold the majority of time-hungry occupations, which are often made possible by spouses who manage the house. However, according to Goldin, management innovation may enable employees to fill in for one another to make these occupations more mother-friendly. Given the incentives, the company can always find a way to have suitable replacements. The issue is that a large number of top executives don't really view it that way. With many leaders taking away the flexibility that many people, working moms in particular, have grown to depend on to maintain our earning power (not to mention our sanity), that has been depressingly obvious this year.

Who knows why the Nobel Committee gives these medals out at certain times. Before 2023, Goldin's study was valuable. But again, maybe now is the best moment to appreciate her collection of work.