Nobel Prize in Economics for a Jewish economist

Bernardo Kliksberg*

Hamas terrorists killed with the utmost cruelty 1300 defenseless Jews, injured several thousand and kidnapped 240. An international anti-Semitic wave then broke out that is especially affecting universities and forcing Jewish students and professors to take unprecedented precautions. In this context, the awarding of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics to a brilliant Jewish economist who has dedicated her life to fighting against one of the most opprobrious stigmas that weighs on the world, acute gender discrimination, acquires transcendental meaning. It is one more contribution to the long struggle of the Jewish people to help redeem it.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Economics sends a powerful message, forcing us to once again become aware of the situation of women in our time. It was awarded by the Academy to Claudia Goldin. She is the third woman to receive this award. 91 men have been honored with it. So the award itself speaks of the relegation of women. It was awarded for her exceptional work and her very important contributions to the research and analysis of the condition of women in the United States. As another Nobel Prize winner in Economics, Paul Krugman, points out, “nothing is more fair than choosing Goldin for this distinction.” Born in 1946, she was also the first woman to be appointed a life professor at Harvard. She shows in her works how women were systematically subjected to multiple discrimination in labor markets during the last century. Until the seventies, the female workforce represented a much smaller percentage than the male workforce. Her positions were on the underpaid line and she was systematically deferred for promotions. It was as if she had been born with congenital inferiorities, despite her increasingly outstanding schooling and her rapid rise in university studies.

Goldin emphasizes that many women considered themselves destined for menial jobs. Those myths were being broken. Women entered the workforce en masse. She was fighting ardently for her labor rights and showing qualities of the highest level. Goldin verifies in his studies that the differences were based on elements other than her training and abilities. Among them she explains is motherhood and her condition of being in charge of the care economy. Bosses, she says, prefer employees who are always present in the office. Women must request leave before and after childbirth. Many companies in many countries discard them for this reason, or put strong obstacles in place. She points out that some societies instead support and support women so that they can give birth in good conditions and can preserve their jobs. Thus, some countries, such as the Nordic ones, grant fully paid leaves of more than a year for mothers, and very extended and mandatory leaves for their husbands, so that they can share family responsibilities with them. This is also the case of welfare states with long maternity leave, such as France, England, Germany, Spain and Canada.

Discrimination continues

With significant progress as illustrated by the studies by Goldin and others, there is still a long way to go. The Davos Forum, in its annual report on women, highlights that, at the current very slow rate, women will earn the same for equal work as men, within 250 years. Furthermore, various studies show that they continue to be a small minority in senior management, even in the most developed countries. In the pandemic, many more women than men lost their jobs. The extreme right that is taking power today supported by ferocious demagogy and calls for racism, hatred of immigrants, and anti-Semitism, practice contempt, machismo, and violence against women. Thus, among others, in the dictatorship of the ayatollahs in Iran, massive female protests have been savagely repressed against the murders of young people by the so-called morality police for minute oversights in the rules regarding their veil. In Afghanistan the Taliban prohibit women from studying.

On the other hand, in countries like Israel, the permanent development of women is one of the public causes with the most support, it has records of women in prominent public, business and civil responsibilities and launched extensive plans to enhance their training and insertion.

The Nobel Prize for Goldin is a vibrant call to stop as soon as possible the intolerable multifaceted discriminations that ultimately lead, as another Nobel Prize winner in economics, Amartya Sen, highlighted, to the underutilization of women's considerable capacities.

(*) Advisor to various international organizations. Doctor Honoris Causa from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, author of numerous works translated into multiple languages. 

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