VOA新闻杂志2023--Nobel Economics Prize Goes to Professor Studying Gender in Workplace

The Nobel Prize in economics has been awarded to Claudia Goldin for her work on the gap between men and women in the workplace.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the prize on Monday. The 77-year-old Goldin is only the third woman among 93 past Nobel economics prizewinners. She is a professor at Harvard University.

Goldin's research has shown that even in the field of economics, women earn about 13 percent less than men. The pay gap prevents some women from continuing their education.

The Nobel committee credits Goldin with finding missing data to better explain continuing differences between both the pay and work involvement, or participation¹, of men and women.

The group called Goldin "a detective" who found new data sources and "creative ways to use them to measure these unknowns."

Goldin studied information related to female participation in the workplace over 200 years and found that their pay started low and never caught up to men.

She looked at women whose jobs went uncounted, such as those who worked on farms alongside their husbands or made clothing at home. Goldin said the pay gap that existed then still exists today, even as women gain higher levels of education than men.

In the 1990s, she said, American women led the world in their labor² participation rate. But the rate has dropped since then.

"I think something has happened in America," Goldin said. "We have to ... ask questions about piecing together the family, the home ... with the marketplace and employment."

Even as women have made education gains, Goldin notes, they still often feel pressure to stay at home to care for children or to choose jobs that permit them to be available to children.

"They graduate from college at much higher rates than men. They do better in high school than men do. So why are there these differences?" Goldin asked.

Randi Hjalmarsson of the Nobel committee said Goldin's work does not provide specific solutions to the problem. However, she said Goldin did identify "the source of the gap, and how it's changed over time ..."

Hjalmarsson added, "By finally understanding the problem and calling it by the right name, we will be able to pave a better route forward."

Goldin suggested men need to do a better job sharing childcare and work responsibilities. Women, she said, often miss out on career progress that comes with working longer hours or on weekends because they feel pressure to care for children.

She also suggested that the U.S. government put more money into after-school programs. "Very few of us have jobs that finish at 3 p.m.," she said. Goldin noted³ that women in Canada, France and Japan currently have a higher labor participation rate than those in the U.S.

Goldin said some of the work still needs to be done by couples. She notes that "couple equity⁴ also leads to more gender⁵ equity." Goldin also noted that girls pay attention to how their mothers participated in work and that "each generation (learns) from the successes and failures of preceding generations."

The prize comes with an award of about $1 million and will be presented at a ceremony in Sweden later this year.

Words in This Story

gap –n. the distance between two things, such as man's pay and a woman's pay

couple –n. two people who live together and have a romantic or sexual relationship

detective –n. a person who solves a mystery or finds an answer to something unknown

preceding –adj. existing or happening before

1 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。