Claudia Goldin, a Harvard professor and Nobel laureate, said remote and hybrid working are making competitive workplaces across the U.S. more hospitable for women.
Earlier this week, Goldin became the third woman in history to win the Nobel Prize in Economics for her research on the gender pay gap and female labor force participation.
Her decades of research show that the nature of the gender pay gap has changed over time, with childbearing being a major factor in why women are paid less than men in the United States today.
She coined the term “greed jobs” to describe high-paying, high-pressure positions in fields such as finance, management, law and academia that require employees to work unusual hours outside of contracted working hours.
in a recent interview british news media independentWomen often fail to advance in such positions because they are often put off by the demands of extra hours after having children, Goldin said.
“If you work twice as many hours, your salary will be twice as much,” she said. “[But]it’s not just the number of hours, it’s the time: Is it dinner time? Is it the weekend? Is it a holiday? Is it two o’clock in the morning?”
Benefits of working remotely
However, Goldin said in a separate interview on Thursday that such roles had become more accessible due to changes brought about by the pandemic, and said gains on gender equality could be sustained as long as companies continued to offer hybrid work. .
“I see silver linings to this pandemic that we never thought (possible),” she said during the telecast. talk with Bloomberg. “We can always get things done remotely. You can always get M&A done remotely, you can always sign contracts remotely. You don’t have to travel long distances to Beijing, Tokyo, Zurich and Paris.”
Golding said that because remote deals and meetings were less common before the coronavirus outbreak, women were often excluded from some of the “best” high-paying jobs because they required frequent long-distance travel.
“Now that we have less travel, it will make what I call ‘greedy work’ more flexible,” she told us Bloomberg. “At the same time, our flexible working is becoming more and more productive. Think of flexible working, where you’re told, ‘Well, you can work part-time, 25 hours a week’ – well, that’s not going to happen Brings great possibilities for promotion. But if you can now combine that with some remote work, that’s even better. “
While the Harvard economics professor said return-to-office policies could “certainly” undo some of that progress, she noted that many of the directives issued by companies involve hybrid work, which would still benefit women.
“People who want to work part-time can still work three days in the office and two days remotely,” she said. “So it just depends on what the company is doing. But at the same time, even if they call people back to the office, they It’s not necessarily that business travel will be the same as before.”
Advice for young women
Goldin also urged young female professionals to think carefully when choosing industries, employers and romantic partners.
“Find the right partner, but you both should also find the right jobs so you don’t give up as much income if one person doesn’t work long hours or be on call,” she advises. “The problem is, kids need at least one parent to be home, which (usually) means someone is giving up quite a bit of income. So, you want to make sure you’re in a workplace where there are good substitutes, so you’re not the only one who can The person doing the merger, you are the only one who can sign the contract”.
Golding added: “I hope every couple realizes that they have to work together to make sure they have more couple equality, and with more couple equality, there will be more gender equality.”
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