Introduction

Gender and labour market might seem as two completely diiferent genres, however there is a relationship between gender and labour market. Throughout the past, women have fought a long battles to secure equal representation in the society. Whether it is politics, acting, sports or corporate jobs, women never disappointed the society. Women have demonstrated that they can perform as efficiently as any other gender if given proper training and support. However, the war to receive equal pay for equal work is still going on.

Women remain underrepresented in the global labor market: approximately 50% of women are employed or actively seeking income-generating jobs, while 80% of men are. Men’s participation has remained stable across time and across countries, whereas it has not been the same for women. In South Asia, Middle east and North Africa, this gap is particularly wide, exceeding 50 percentage points.

Additionally, when women work, they earn less than men, tend to occupy positions with limited room for promotion, and face severe underrepresentation on corporate boards and as CEOs. Gender gaps in earnings and the “glass ceiling” in promotions are worldwide phenomena.

This is not only a question about equality and equity, but also about economic efficiency and GDP growth. Such inefficiencies lead to large economic costs to society.Various economists have tried to throw light on this important aspect, however Claudia Dale Goldin’ work, caught everyone’s attention last year.

Claudia Goldin’s efforts in understanding of Gender and the Labor Market

Claudia Dale Goldin, born May 14, 1946 is an American economic historian and labor economist. She is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University. In October 2023, she was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for having advanced our understanding of women’s labor market outcomes”. The third woman to win the award, she was the first woman to win the award solo. Goldin, 77, has dedicated herself to studying women and work.She has researched women’s career-family balance, the gender wage gap, and the impact of birth control on life choices. This has established her as the leading expert on how workforce changes affect women’s life cycles and vice versa.

Analazying Claudia’s work

U shaped female labour force participation

Before Goldin’s work, researchers believed that economic development increased the female labor force participation rate. Thus, as a contry becomes richer, female labour participation increases. However there was  lack of data hence there was no reliability on such data. Goldin dug new quantitative and qualitative research and constructed new data. Claudia showed that the participation of women in the labor market declines as the economy transitiones from an agrarian society to an industrial society. And then increases when a country moves from industrial to service sector economy. This implies that both high and low income countries have a higher female labor participation than middle income countries.

Reasons for U shaped curve

• The proximity of farm work to households enabled women to combine home and market work during the agricultural period, but the movement of work out of the home during the Industrial Revolution constrained the occupational choices of women.
• On the other hand, the growth in the services sector led to increasing female labor force participation. The expansion of the services sector amid the rise of clerical and office work with better working conditions and higher returns to education encouraged more women to finish secondary education and participate in the labor market.

• She showed that while expanding women’s employment benefits the economy, removing barriers to their participation is essential.

• She also pointed out that social stigma surrounding female employment restricts women, especially married ones, as work transitions from the home to the market.
• At higher stages of development,as constraints to educational resources loosen, female education improves; so is their ability to occupy white-collar jobs upon school completion. This leads to a large increase in women entering the labor force.

Steps taken to reduce gender discrimination in labour market

• The Centre for Gender and Labor Studies has been established to address and strengthen the understanding of gender issues in the workplace.

• Gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to development policies worldwide and crucial for achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

• Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is essential for achieving full employment, sustainability and social inclusion.
• Ensuring development and equality, policy awareness, skills development, capacity building, dialogue and support through education and research will be some of the  important work undertaken by the Ministry of Justice and Labour.
• In this framework, the Ministry of Justice and Labour was created to conduct legal  research; the Centre also aims to promote collaborative research to inform public  policy in new areas of gender and labour research.

Conclusion

Women participation in the labour market is important to increase the GDP of any country. However even today women are fighting for equal recognition for their work. What countries have failed to undrstand is that as women particpation in an economy increases, it leads to overall improvement of the country. For this, social stigmas associated with working women needs to be reduced, and safe working conditions should be provided. Removing these barriers will help a country to reach upper portion of women participation curve, as discussed by Claudia Dale. As societies evolve, fostering an inclusive labor market is key to sustainable development and prosperity.