Alessandra Casarico

Women stirred up a “quiet revolution” in the labour market, according to Claudia Goldin, the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. She is the 2023 winner of the Nobel prize in economics for her analysis of gender differences in the labour market, particularly the persistent problem of the gender pay gap.

“Most of her research interprets the present through the lens of the past and explores the origins of current issues of concern,” according to Goldin’s Harvard bio. And this really does capture the essence of her work and how influential it has been.

As an economic historian, Goldin studies, documents and illuminates the changes in female economic empowerment over time in labour markets, as well as the causes and challenges ahead for all of us who want to make the world a more equal place in which to live and work.

Despite some progress, gender