American Claudia Goldin received the Nobel Prize in Economics on Monday for her studies that have contributed to understanding the evolution of the role of women in the labor market.

This 77-year-old Harvard professor is the third woman to receive this award. She was honored for “advancing our understanding of women’s outcomes in the labor market,” the jury in Stockholm announced.

“Claudia Goldin’s research has given us new and often surprising insights into the historical and contemporary role of women in the labor market,” she added.

“It is a very important award, not only for me, but for many people who are working on this issue and who are trying to understand why such large inequalities persist” despite the “important developments,” Goldin said in a phone call with AFP.

The new winner explained at a press conference organized by Harvard University that she had worked very hard to change the representation of women in the economy.

Goldin talked about how he welcomes students to campus. Since their arrival, men have been thinking about ‘finances’ and ‘they love it’. On the other hand, women also believe it, but they do not “want” to study this subject.

He also emphasized that “the economy is about people, equality, women’s work, health, economic development and well-being.”

Globally, about 50% of women participate in the labor market, compared to 80% of men. They earn less “and have fewer opportunities to reach the top of the career ladder,” said Randi Hjalmarsson, member of the Nobel Committee.

“Claudia Goldin delved into archives and collected more than 200 years of data related to the United States, allowing her to show how and why differences in income and employment rates between men and women evolved over time,” added Hjalmarsson to it.

“Women’s educational levels have increased dramatically, but in many places their salaries and (hierarchical) ranks have not advanced,” Goldin told AFP.

Some parental leave measures included in a recent U.S. government reform are “a step in the right direction” but remain “a drop in the ocean,” he said.

Goldin said she was “personally concerned” about the decline of abortion rights in the United States. But, “I never, or almost never, mix politics with my work,” he said.

Last year the prize went to Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, and his compatriots Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig, for their work on the banks and their necessary bailouts in times of financial crisis.

Previously, only two women had won the Nobel Prize in Economics, the American Elinor Ostrom (2009) and the French-American Esther Duflo (2019).

The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences – as the Bank of Sweden’s Prize for Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is known, first awarded in 1969 – is the only prize not provided for in the philanthropist’s will.

It was much later added to the five traditional prizes – Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature and Peace –, earning it the nickname ‘false Nobel Prize’.

In 1968, on the occasion of its three hundredth anniversary, the Central Bank of Sweden, the oldest in the world, established an Economic Sciences Prize in memory of Alfred Nobel and made available to the Nobel Foundation an annual sum equal to to the amount of the other awards.

For this year’s winners, the check is 11 million Swedish crowns, the equivalent of almost a million dollars.

The most prestigious Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi on Friday.

Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse previously won the Literature Prize. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus and Alexei Ekimov for their work in the field of nanoparticles.

In physics, three specialists in the motion of electrons, Anne L’Huillier, Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz, and in medicine, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, won for their pioneering work on messenger RNA vaccines. (JO)