The first of two special editions focused on investing in women and breaking economic barriers, brought to you by UBS and ‘Konfekt’, the sister publication of ‘Monocle’. Featuring insights from one of the extraordinary cohort of economists that shapes the UBS worldview: 2023 Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin. Goldin discusses the importance of fostering economic equality and empowering financial futures for all. Thanks to the partnership with UBS, you can read more about Goldin’s work in the winter issue of ‘Konfekt’, available on newsstands now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello and welcome to the Bulletin with UBS on Monocle Radio.
Each week, the sharpest minds and freshest thinkers in finance take you beyond the numbers and hype right to the heart of the big issues of the day.
Today we have the first of two very special editions of the program for you.
The theme for these programs is Investing in Women, Breaking Barriers in Economics, and Empowering Financial Futures for all.
Regular listeners to this show will know about UBS's interest in showcasing wisdom to affect change, and they will also be familiar with our previous focus on this program on the bank's Nobel perspectives and how the insights of that extraordinary cohort of thinkers and doers shapes the UBS worldview.
Well, we are in the incredibly fortunate position of hearing from one such Nobel laureate today.
I was depicted by the Nobel committee as a historical detective, and that really is the way I think of my work.
That's Claudia Goldin, just the third woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences and the first to claim the award solo, largely for her work on female participation in the economy.
Goldin's landmark 1990 book, Understanding the Gender An Economic History of American Women, laid the foundations for a radical rethink of the way the US Views women's employment.
Now, thanks to a partnership between UBS and Monocle's sister publication, Confect, the winter edition of which is out now, you can read more about Goldin's work and passion for identifying and advocating solutions for a more equitable future in this week's special edition of this program.
We're delighted to bring you some insights from Goldin herself on the importance of fostering economic equality.
So here is Claudia Goldin with more on her work and her journey.
When we usually think about the gender gap, today we think about earnings.
The book Understanding the Gender Gap was written to set down the history of women in the labor force.
So in that sense, the gender gap of the title is not so much about earnings as it is about labor force participation.
If you look back to 1900, a very, very small fraction of women in the labor force, let's say 5%, but today it's, let's say 70%.
Well, that's a huge change.
I knew that I was doing something extremely important, but at the same time I thought, how is it possible that if I look back to 1900, people were poor?
Surely women were employed for more than that?
So I started thinking about the fact that there was a vast undercount of employment and that I should go and put people back into the labor force even though they didn't say that they had an occupation.