Harvard Economics professor Claudia Goldin wins Nobel Prize for shining light on the gender pay gap

Why is this important?

💡 A new explanation for the gender pay gap

Although she believes that wage discrimination does play a role, she offers an additional explanation arguing that a large part of the unexplained wage gap is due to the fact that women still do a significantly larger share of unpaid care work including child & elderly care.

💡 Why it matters

In taking on these tasks at home, it is more difficult for women to work in jobs that require a lot of overtime and frequent business travel - which are precisely the jobs that pay disproportionately well. Goldin coined the term "greedy jobs" to describe such occupations (working more, evening/weekends, being available for meetings, last minute business travels)

🔴 The Challenge:

- Changing this is tough because the way couples share caregiving hasn't caught up even though more women work in the economy.

- Also, when both partners share caregiving equally, neither can take on high-paying "greedy jobs", leaving potential earnings on the table

✅ Possible solutions

- Change the norms, the hearts & minds of people - Not to think of childcare, & domestic work as tasks that belong to a particular gender.

- Change relative price for childcare, employers offering maternity & paternity leaves

- Reduce the relative gap between flexible & "Greedy jobs"

May we use her insights as a catalyst for change & building a more inclusive & equitable world!