Reconsidering Claudia Goldin’s Contributions from the Perspective of British Gender History-Focusing on Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity

Abstract

This paper introduces and comments on the work of Claudia Goldin, the 2023 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, from the perspectives of British labour history and gender history, focusing primarily on her book Career and Family: Women's Century-Long Journey toward Equity. It begins by discussing her earlier work, Understanding the Gender Gap, published in 1990, which analyzes approximately 150 years of women's labour from the early 19th century to around 1980. The overview of Career and Family centers on three key concepts: "cohort," the "quiet revolution," and "greedy work." From the viewpoint of British history, this paper explores the potential of cohort-based approaches and introduces research that questions assumptions about the rise in married women's labour force participation and changes in women's work consciousness during the second half of the 20th century. Regarding the U-shaped curve of female labour force participation, this study highlights the lack of sufficient research on the downward phase and emphasizes the need for greater integration with studies of the early modern period. Overall, Goldin's work provides crucial insights into long-term trends in gender and labour, and invites further dialogue with British historical scholarship.