ECONOMICS NOBEL FOR RESEARCH IN GENDER GAP AT WORKPLACE.

 The 2023 Nobel prize in Economics won by Harvard University Economic historian Claudia Goldin for her seminal contribution towards exposing gender gap issues primarily emanating from deeply rooted wage inequities between men and women. Claudia Goldin who in 1990 became the first woman to be tenured to serve( or to  become permanent) in  Hardward University Economics Department.Goldin  is only just the third woman to win Nobel Prize in Economics out of total 93 Nobel laureates in Economics and only 26th time the prize has been awarded to a sole Laureate so far,  according to the Nobel prize committee ."It may be noted here that the First woman to win Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 was Elinor Ostram along with her male counterpart Oliver E Willamson for her analysis of economic governance. On the other hand in 2019 the Economist couple French American Lady economist Esther Dafol  and her Indian husband Abhijith Banerjee and Michael Kremer together won Nobel prize in Economics for their research work on poverty alleviation and development. While Elinor Ostram shared  half of  the prize and Esther Dafol had to share only  one third of the prize Current winner Claudia Goldin will be solely receiving the  Prize money of 11 million Swedish Krona (or ₹ 8.3 crores).Paradoxically in 2022 Economics Nobel was  shared by  reputed three experts including former US Federal Reserve Chairperson Ben Bernanke, financial and banking experts  Douglas W Diamond and Philip H.Dybvig for their rigorous research on bank collapses, bank runs, financial crisis and depression. Some of their findings were effectively applied during the collapse of American Silicon valley bank and Swedish Credit Suisse Bank in March 2023.

A lady economist winning Nobel prize solely in 2023  without sharing with anyone, obviously Is a great credit  to this year's Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin in Economics Sciences where her seminal contribution provided the pioneering comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through her research spanning over a period of more than two centuries.."Her research reveals the issues of change as well as the main sources of the remaining gender gap in workplace".In her research she analysed data pertaining to more than two hundred years, trends to examine the differences in pay gaps between men and women in the same job..The Study observed large  differences between women and men in terms of what they do,how they are remunerated etc Her research work attempted to solve these issues. Goldin's work in 1990 entitled "Understanding the Gender Gap:An Economic History of American Women " made a pertinent incisive examination of the roots of gender inequality. She had conducted impact studies on problems like effects of the contraceptive pill on women's career,besides studying 200 years of women's participation in the workplace, indicating that despite continued economic growth, women's pay did not continuously and consistently catch up with men's and a divide still exists despite the fact that women achieved higher levels of education. In the 1990s American labour force participation rate for women was highest in the world ( Work participation rate is the number of people with age 16 and above who are employed divided  by total working population)but now women's work participation rates has declined. According to Goldin's analysis  women's role in job market and the pay they recieved largely declined. 

Main reasons attributed to  the Nobel award is that she provided first comprehensive account of women's earnings and labour market participation through the centuries. Her research revealed not only the causes of change but also the main sources of remaining gender gap issues.Across the world women are underrepresented in the labour markets compared with their male counterparts. When women came out of their homes in search of jobs and joined the workforce it did not give an upward push through out the entire period. Female work participation in the labour market did not gave an upward trend over the entire period but instead it formed a U shaped curve with agrarian and industrial society witnessing a decline in women's work participation rates, which further started to increase with the growth of the  service sector. Despite modernisation, economic growth and increasing population the earnings gap between men and women continue to persist. However Goldin observed that women's wages have increased when the work was redesigned to offer flexibility and substitutability.For instance in the pharmacy sector when more pharmacies were independent, the pharmacist had to work on call .But the rise in chain of drug stores facilitated that pharmacist could work in shifts as per the requirement. As a result pharmacist has the smallest gender- wage gaps among high earning fields. As per Goldin's study  Largest gender gaps exist in sectors like IT,utility services, health care, Telecommunications, commodity  financial services and industries,whereas higher female turnover rates also exist in telecom, information technology, services, commodities, financial services, health care,industries, energy sectors etc. She has also observed that among couples it is usually the wives who are willing to sacrifice their careers for their husband's. 

Goldin's analysis on gender gap in workplace is not only valid in United States alone but also across all countries especially in under developed countries like India. Women's role in the job market and the pay she receives are not necessarily influenced just by by broad social and economic changes, but partly by their  individual decisions about how much education and skills they should acquire. Young girls make decisions about future work by looking at their own mother's participation, each generation, learning from success and failures of the preceeding generation etc.like majority of other countries lndian labour market is characterized by Low women's participation rate in the range of 16-23 percent, and women's participation of parliament just 15 percent which in turn indicated severe gender gap issues in our country.  Infact the award of 2023 Nobel in Economics has been a major breakthrough in terms of crucial issues related to Gender development and Labour Economics studies in general.