< Return to Video

Claudia Goldin | Women in Economics

  • 0:00 - 0:02
    - [Claudia] When you do
    economic research,
  • 0:03 - 0:06
    you have three pieces.
  • 0:06 - 0:07
    I think of them as balls
  • 0:07 - 0:11
    that I want floating up
    all the time.
  • 0:11 - 0:12
    I'm juggling them,
  • 0:13 - 0:16
    and one of them is the idea.
  • 0:16 - 0:18
    I have to begin with
    "What's the question,
  • 0:18 - 0:19
    what's important?"
  • 0:19 - 0:21
    ♪ [music] ♪
  • 0:21 - 0:22
    - [Narrator] Economists --
  • 0:22 - 0:26
    not a group with a lot
    of Marys, Natashas, or Juanitas,
  • 0:26 - 0:29
    and that's caused
    a lot of controversy.
  • 0:29 - 0:33
    However, what's often overlooked
    are the actual female economists
  • 0:33 - 0:36
    who are pushing economics forward
    by addressing real-world issues.
  • 0:37 - 0:40
    Welcome to Women in Economics.
  • 0:45 - 0:47
    - [Ilyana] One thing I definitely
    learned from Claudia
  • 0:47 - 0:50
    is to approach economic
    research like a detective.
  • 0:50 - 0:53
    I think, especially, when working
    in economic history,
  • 0:53 - 0:56
    when you can't just download
    a cleaned-up dataset,
  • 0:56 - 1:00
    you really have to go searching,
    open dusty boxes
  • 1:00 - 1:01
    and look under rocks.
  • 1:04 - 1:07
    - [Lawrence] She is the consummate
    economic historian.
  • 1:07 - 1:10
    She has been
    the innovator and pioneer
  • 1:10 - 1:13
    on bringing economic logic,
    and historical and better data,
  • 1:13 - 1:17
    to understanding
    women's role in the economy.
  • 1:17 - 1:20
    And then she is a fantastic
    labor economist,
  • 1:20 - 1:23
    who had been a leader in work
    on understanding inequality.
  • 1:27 - 1:30
    - [Narrator] Claudia Dale Goldin
    was born in 1946 in the Bronx.
  • 1:31 - 1:34
    She was a problem-solver
    from the beginning.
  • 1:35 - 1:37
    As a child, she avoided
    the New York City heat
  • 1:37 - 1:40
    by spending her summer days
    playing cards or reading
  • 1:40 - 1:42
    in air-conditioned
    department stores.
  • 1:43 - 1:44
    And while she always knew
  • 1:44 - 1:47
    she wanted to be
    a scientist of some kind,
  • 1:47 - 1:49
    she wasn't always set on economics.
  • 1:51 - 1:52
    - [Dev] She'll tell stories to me
  • 1:52 - 1:55
    about when she first went
    to the Natural History Museum,
  • 1:55 - 1:56
    when she was living in the Bronx,
  • 1:56 - 1:58
    and fell in love with mummies
  • 1:59 - 2:02
    and thought that archeology
    was going to be her passion.
  • 2:03 - 2:05
    But then she discovered
    microbiology,
  • 2:05 - 2:07
    and she suddenly realized
    that microscopes uncovered
  • 2:07 - 2:10
    a whole new world
    of discovery for her.
  • 2:10 - 2:14
    It wasn't until she actually went
    to college at Cornell
  • 2:14 - 2:16
    that she first got introduced
    to economics.
  • 2:17 - 2:19
    - [Claudia] I decided
    to become an economist
  • 2:19 - 2:22
    because I took an economics class
  • 2:22 - 2:25
    from an amazing person
    named Fred Kahn.
  • 2:25 - 2:31
    He was so excited about the field
    of industrial organization
  • 2:31 - 2:33
    and product markets and regulation
  • 2:33 - 2:36
    that it was infectious.
  • 2:36 - 2:39
    And in fact, when I went
    to graduate school
  • 2:39 - 2:40
    at the University of Chicago,
  • 2:40 - 2:44
    I went there to study
    Industrial Organization.
  • 2:46 - 2:48
    - [Narrator] Under
    the mentorship of Bob Fogel,
  • 2:48 - 2:51
    Claudia studied
    American Economic History,
  • 2:51 - 2:56
    particularly the economics of slavery
    and the post-Civil War South.
  • 2:56 - 2:58
    She had to travel
    to some southern states
  • 2:58 - 3:01
    to gather archival materials
    for this research.
  • 3:01 - 3:04
    Goldin didn't approach this trip
    like a traditional economist.
  • 3:05 - 3:07
    - [Lawrence] She thought
    what I should do
  • 3:07 - 3:10
    is hitchhike between
    the different cities in the South.
  • 3:10 - 3:12
    She met some woman
    from one of the archives
  • 3:12 - 3:14
    who let her stay at their place,
  • 3:14 - 3:15
    and when she came back,
  • 3:15 - 3:18
    her advisor asked her for a list
    of the receipts and expenses
  • 3:18 - 3:20
    associated with the trip,
  • 3:20 - 3:21
    and she had no clue
  • 3:21 - 3:24
    that you were supposed
    to actually stay in hotels
  • 3:24 - 3:26
    and pay for actual travel
  • 3:26 - 3:28
    and that you could
    get reimbursed for this.
  • 3:28 - 3:31
    But in fact, by actually staying
    with the archivist
  • 3:31 - 3:34
    and getting access
    to archives and knowledge
  • 3:34 - 3:35
    that you wouldn't have had,
  • 3:35 - 3:38
    it probably created inroads
    and understanding
  • 3:38 - 3:39
    that wouldn't have been possible
  • 3:39 - 3:41
    if you were going through
    usual channels.
  • 3:42 - 3:45
    - [Narrator] She continued
    to focus on economic history,
  • 3:45 - 3:47
    exploring such questions
  • 3:47 - 3:51
    as why the North and South
    had such different economic outcomes
  • 3:51 - 3:52
    after the Civil War.
  • 3:53 - 3:57
    - [Claudia] Then I remember thinking
    that there were interesting aspects
  • 3:57 - 4:01
    in terms of child labor
    and families.
  • 4:01 - 4:06
    It suddenly occurred to me,
    the main changes in the labor force
  • 4:06 - 4:08
    had to do with women.
  • 4:10 - 4:11
    - [Narrator] She realized
  • 4:11 - 4:13
    that there was
    a huge story in U.S. history
  • 4:13 - 4:15
    that was missing
    from economist scrutiny,
  • 4:15 - 4:20
    and that was the great evolution
    of women's labor force participation.
  • 4:21 - 4:23
    - [Claudia] The women
    who were working --
  • 4:23 - 4:26
    from much of the history
    that I was looking at --
  • 4:26 - 4:28
    were young single women.
  • 4:28 - 4:31
    But then it morphed
    into studying how it was
  • 4:31 - 4:37
    that older married women
    with families joined the workforce.
  • 4:37 - 4:40
    - [Narrator] Goldin combined
    deep archival research,
  • 4:40 - 4:42
    history, and economics
  • 4:42 - 4:44
    to conduct study after study,
  • 4:44 - 4:46
    examining how various dimensions
  • 4:46 - 4:49
    of women's participation
    in the U.S. labor force
  • 4:49 - 4:51
    evolved over 200 years.
  • 4:52 - 4:55
    - [Ilyana] Claudia's best known
    for her contributions
  • 4:55 - 4:56
    to the economics of gender.
  • 4:56 - 4:58
    She sort of pioneers that area.
  • 4:59 - 5:02
    - [Lawrence] She has been thinking
    about things no one had known --
  • 5:02 - 5:05
    like why is it that women's jobs
  • 5:05 - 5:08
    were much more likely
    to be paid piece rate
  • 5:08 - 5:10
    than men's jobs?
  • 5:10 - 5:13
    Why is money taken away
    and given to their parents?
  • 5:13 - 5:16
    The important role
    for caring for the family
  • 5:16 - 5:18
    and how that affects
    the labor market.
  • 5:18 - 5:23
    She just has a determination
    to figure out what's true,
  • 5:23 - 5:27
    to find the new data,
    to read the historical sources,
  • 5:27 - 5:30
    to think about what
    the actual people making decisions --
  • 5:30 - 5:33
    one of the huge advantages
    we have as economists,
  • 5:33 - 5:36
    we can actually read the diaries
  • 5:36 - 5:38
    of actual people
    making these decisions
  • 5:38 - 5:39
    and talk to them and interview them
  • 5:39 - 5:41
    when we're doing
    contemporaneous work
  • 5:41 - 5:43
    or read their inner thoughts.
  • 5:45 - 5:48
    - [Narrator] As just one example,
    Goldin's exhaustive research
  • 5:48 - 5:51
    has led her
    to identify four phases,
  • 5:51 - 5:53
    going back to the late 19th century,
  • 5:53 - 5:56
    that shaped women's role
    in the U.S. economy.
  • 5:56 - 5:58
    The first three phases
    were evolutionary.
  • 5:59 - 6:02
    While important advances were made
    through the evolutionary phases,
  • 6:02 - 6:04
    women also had limited control
  • 6:04 - 6:07
    over key decisions
    affecting their employment.
  • 6:07 - 6:09
    Women in those periods
  • 6:09 - 6:12
    were more likely to view
    their working lives as intermittent
  • 6:12 - 6:14
    and a means to put food
    on the table.
  • 6:15 - 6:19
    Then came the quiet revolution,
    starting in the late 1970s.
  • 6:19 - 6:23
    Women of the quiet revolution
    generally viewed their careers
  • 6:23 - 6:26
    as a significant part
    of their personal identity
  • 6:26 - 6:28
    and made their own decisions
    about their working lives.
  • 6:28 - 6:31
    Goldin found that this latest phase
  • 6:31 - 6:34
    was triggered mainly by
    increased investments in education
  • 6:34 - 6:37
    and increased availability
    of contraceptives.
  • 6:39 - 6:41
    - [Edward] More than
    any other person,
  • 6:41 - 6:46
    she has been central in the study
    of women and work in economics.
  • 6:46 - 6:48
    She gave it a broad
    historical sweep.
  • 6:48 - 6:50
    She tied it to economic theory
    in a tight way.
  • 6:50 - 6:55
    Anyone who works on the issue
    of women and work going forward
  • 6:55 - 6:59
    will be citing Claudia Goldin
    and will be influenced by her.
  • 6:59 - 7:01
    - [Narrator] Working together
    with Larry Katz,
  • 7:01 - 7:05
    she's also done critical research
    about education, technology,
  • 7:05 - 7:08
    and the extreme dangers
    of income inequality.
  • 7:08 - 7:10
    - She's among
    the first to document
  • 7:10 - 7:14
    what we now think of
    as a U shape of inequality
  • 7:14 - 7:16
    over the 20th century.
  • 7:16 - 7:19
    To this day, economists
    are still trying to figure out
  • 7:19 - 7:21
    the determinants of that U shape.
  • 7:21 - 7:24
    - [Narrator] As the first woman
    to be offered tenure
  • 7:24 - 7:26
    in the Harvard Economics Department,
  • 7:26 - 7:27
    she also takes her role
  • 7:27 - 7:30
    of mentoring the next generation
    of economists seriously.
  • 7:30 - 7:32
    - [Dev] As any graduate
    student will tell you,
  • 7:32 - 7:35
    advisors play a critical role.
  • 7:35 - 7:36
    It's these personal touches
  • 7:36 - 7:39
    that make Claudia Goldin
    such a wonderful advisor --
  • 7:39 - 7:43
    whether it's walking
    her dog, Pika, with her,
  • 7:44 - 7:47
    receiving midnight texts from her
    that always make me laugh.
  • 7:47 - 7:50
    - She's not always serious --
    which is, of course, very important
  • 7:50 - 7:52
    because if someone's
    constantly serious,
  • 7:52 - 7:55
    it's just so intimidating
    as a student.
  • 7:56 - 7:58
    - [Narrator] In 2014,
    Goldin started
  • 7:58 - 8:01
    the Undergraduate Women
    in Economics Program --
  • 8:01 - 8:05
    a broad initiative to encourage
    more female economics majors.
  • 8:05 - 8:07
    - When I'm doing my best research,
  • 8:07 - 8:10
    I am reminded of
    what I learned from Claudia,
  • 8:10 - 8:12
    and how research can be fun,
  • 8:12 - 8:15
    how it's a mystery
    that you want to unravel.
  • 8:16 - 8:18
    - [Edward] She brings a joy
    to her research.
  • 8:18 - 8:20
    We were famously called
    the "dismal science."
  • 8:20 - 8:22
    Well, certainly when
    Claudia Goldin does economics,
  • 8:22 - 8:24
    it's anything but dismal.
  • 8:25 - 8:27
    - [Narrator] Want to better
    understand Goldin
  • 8:27 - 8:30
    and her contributions
    to labor economics?
  • 8:30 - 8:33
    Click here for related materials
    and practice questions.
  • 8:33 - 8:34
    Or, check out other videos
  • 8:34 - 8:37
    on how economists
    are tackling all sorts of issues,
  • 8:37 - 8:39
    ranging from weighty topics,
  • 8:39 - 8:41
    such as the Great Recession
    and public health,
  • 8:41 - 8:43
    to everyday topics, like wine --
  • 8:43 - 8:44
    yes, even wine!
Title:
Claudia Goldin | Women in Economics
Description:

This episode of Women in Economics profiles Claudia Goldin, pioneering economic historian, labor economist, and first female economist to be offered tenure at Harvard.

She was drawn to the sciences at a young age but switched to focusing on economics after taking an economics class with Alfred Kahn at Cornell as an undergrad.

Her most well-known research covers the evolution of women’s labor force participation, but her expertise is by no means confined to this topic. She’s also researched extensively on the economics of education, inequality, and automation.

Learn more about Claudia Goldin: https://mru.io/quf

More Women in Econ: https://mru.io/jwn

***INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES***

High school teacher resources: https://mru.io/gq4
Professor resources: https://mru.io/4y6
EconInbox: https://mru.io/o3d

Special thanks to:
A/V Geeks
A/V Geeks/ Pond5.com
A/V Geeks/ Prelinger Archives/ Internet Archive
Alina555 / Getty Images
Alexander Gardner/ Prints and Photographs Division/ Library of Congress
American Economic Association
Archive Films/ Archive Films: Creative/ Getty Images
Archive Photos / Stringer/ Getty Images
Authenticated News / Staff/ Archive Photos/ Getty Images
Barbara Alper / Contributor/ Archive Photos/ Getty Images
Bronek Kaminski / Getty Images
The Bronx High School of Science Alumni Foundation, Inc.
Carla Cioffi/ NASA
Centron Corporation/ A/V Geeks/ Prelinger Archive/ Internet Archive
Charles Rotkin / Contributor/ Corbis Historical/ Getty Images
Christina S. Murrey/ College of Education, University of Texas at Austin
Civil War Photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Claudia Goldin
Columbia Pictures/ Internet Archive
Cornell Chronicle
DogPhonics/ Pond5.com
Duane Michals / Contributor / Getty Images
E.S.Gardner/ Prints and Photographs Division/ Library of Congress
European University Institute
Fundación BBVA
GovernmentFootage/ Pond5.com
Handy (Jam) Organization/ A/V Geeks/ Prelinger Archives/ Internet Archive
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933/ The Met
Hearst Newsreel/ Getty Images
Heritage Images / Contributor/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Holmes (Burton) Films, Inc/ A/V Geeks/ Prelinger Archives/ Internet Archives
Jeff Greenberg/ Universal Images Group/ Getty Images
John Greim / Contributor / Getty Images
John Robert Schmidt/ Prints and Photographs Division/ Library of Congress
Kirsten St. Peter/ U.S. Navy
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection
malerapaso / Getty Images
Matthew Brady/ National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures
Michael Brennan / Contributor/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Morsa Images / Getty Images
National Archives and Records Administration
National Child Labor Committee collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
oneblink1/ Pond5.com
Onyx Media, LLC - Footage/ Archive Films: Editorial/ Getty Images
Prelinger Archives Home Movies/ Internet Archive
Prelinger Associates - Footage/ Archives Films Editorial/ Getty Images
Prelinger/ Archive Films: Creative/ Getty Images
Prints and Photographs Division/ Library of Congress
Puritan Pictures Corporation/ Internet Archive
retrofootage/ Pond5.com
Russell Knight / Stringer / Getty Images
Seattle Municipal Archives, Doctors with Patients 1999 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlemunicipalarchives/4058808950)
Schumacher, Karl H., Photographer
Sgt. Michael Giles/ U.S. Army National Guard
Silverwell Films/ Archive Films: Creative/ Getty Images
Special Collections and University Archives/ University of Illinois at Chicago Library
"Special Collections Research Center,
University of Chicago Library"
Spencer Platt/ Getty Image News/ Getty Images
Steve Eason / Stringer/ Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Streamline Films, Inc.
The Bronx High School of Science Alumni Foundation, Inc.
The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision/ Archive Films: Creative/ Getty Images
TheArchivalCollection/ Pond5.com
The Washington Post / Contributor
U.S. Army Signal Corps/ Prints and Photographs Division/ Library of Congress
Universal Pictures Company, Inc/ Internet Archive
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICAL CENTER
Virginia Department of Education
Vision Educational Productions/ A/V Geeks/ Prelinger Archive/ Internet Archive
War Department/ National Archives at College Park - Still Pictures

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
Marginal Revolution University
Project:
Women In Economics
Duration:
08:47

English subtitles

Revisions Compare revisions