Understanding the Gender Gap

"Goes a long way toward the reintegration of labor history into labor economics....Clearly demonstrates the importance of history in understanding the evolution and operation of labor markets...a primer on much of modern labor economics."--Journal of Economic History "An excellent historical overview of women in the labor force. A very challenging but manageable text for undergraduates with a limited economics background."--Hilarie Lieb, Northwestern University "An insightful analysis not available in traditional studies of the U.S. economy."--J. M. Skaggs, Wichita State University "Outstanding....Goldin has painstakingly assembled a long and rich set of consistent data, much of it rescued from dusty archives where it had long languished....Uses fresh, often innovative applications of economic theory and econometric methodology to wrest explanations of puzzling phenomena....Rewarding."--Women Historians of the Midwest Newsletter "A remarkable work of scholarship: it integrates economic theory, econometrics, a vast historical literature, and a deep understanding of institutions and attitudes....A tour de force. Its lucky readers will not only be glad they read it; they will wish they had written it."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "Remarkably thorough history and analysis of U.S. women in the workplace....Provides a useful framework to understand the difference in pay and aruges from the data that much--but not all--of the gap is due to wage discrimination."--Population Today "A piece of outstanding scholarship based on exhaustive primary research and a high level of economic reasoning which has the courage to attack head-on the three most difficult questions in women's economic history."--Business History "Thorough, detalied and impeccably researched, yet accessible to the undergraduate. A fine effort."--Michael Haupert, University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse "Pathbreaking....Claudia Goldin combines the quantitative skills of an economist with the investigative skills of a historian in her reinterpretation and adjustment of earlier published data as well as her creative use of previously unanalyzed data from the National Archives."--Population and Development Review "Goldin's multifaced exploration of the female labor force over the past two centuries sheds light on the direction for future research."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Goes a long way toward the reintegration of labor history into labor economics....Clearly demonstrates the importance of history in understanding the evolution and operation of labor markets...a primer on much of modern labor economics."--Journal of Economic History "An excellent historical overview of women in the labor force. A very challenging but manageable text for undergraduates with a limited economics background."--Hilarie Lieb, Northwestern University "An insightful analysis not available in traditional studies of the U.S. economy."--J. M. Skaggs, Wichita State University "Outstanding....Goldin has painstakingly assembled a long and rich set of consistent data, much of it rescued from dusty archives where it had long languished....Uses fresh, often innovative applications of economic theory and econometric methodology to wrest explanations of puzzling phenomena....Rewarding."--Women Historians of the Midwest Newsletter "A remarkable work of scholarship: it integrates economic theory, econometrics, a vast historical literature, and a deep understanding of institutions and attitudes....A tour de force. Its lucky readers will not only be glad they read it; they will wish they had written it."--Industrial and Labor Relations Review "Remarkably thorough history and analysis of U.S. women in the workplace....Provides a useful framework to understand the difference in pay and aruges from the data that much--but not all--of the gap is due to wage discrimination."--Population Today "A piece of outstanding scholarship based on exhaustive primary research and a high level of economic reasoning which has the courage to attack head-on the three most difficult questions in women's economic history."--Business History "Thorough, detalied and impeccably researched, yet accessible to the undergraduate. A fine effort."--Michael Haupert, University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse "Pathbreaking....Claudia Goldin combines the quantitative skills of an economist with the investigative skills of a historian in her reinterpretation and adjustment of earlier published data as well as her creative use of previously unanalyzed data from the National Archives."--Population and Development Review "Goldin's multifaced exploration of the female labor force over the past two centuries sheds light on the direction for future research."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History "One cannot do justice to this impressive book in a 1200-word review. I particularly applaud Goldin for her industry in unearthing useful data...her unceasing concern with data quality, her attention to differences between women of color and white women, and her clear demographic analyses....Sociologists and others interested in women's employment are indebted to Claudia Goldin for compiling and expanding them in this superb book."--Barbara F. Reskin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "Offers a thorough record of women in the labor force and adds much to our understanding of the development of women's economic status in this country. It is impossible in a brief review to do justice to a book as rich as this one in both data and analysis."--The Journal of American History "The most comprehensive analysis to date of the available quantitative data on women's work in the nineteenth and twentieth-century United States....A complex and insightful account of the economic history of women's work."--Harvard Business Historical Review "Represents its genre well and contributes to our larger understanding of gender inequality in the workplace,"--Signs "This book is both innovatory and stimulating and will break new ground for those not familiar with some of Goldin's 18 articles on women in the American economy. It is essential reading and should head any historian's personal reading list."--Economic History Review "This excellent volume should find a wide readership among economic historians and labor economists, as well as social historians, sociologists, and scholars in women's studies. It provides convincing evidence that an understanding of the past can illuminate the present and shed light on the future."--Journal of Political Economy "One of the fortes of this book is its wealth of data from an amazing variety of sources. The entire book demonstrates the ability of a first-rate historian to uncover multiple and obscure sources and analyze them in creative and informative ways. This book is likely to be the definitive work on this topic for years to come.....A 'must-read.'"--Economica "Pathbreaking....This book will appeal to historians, economists, and women's studies scholars. Highly recommended for upper-level undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty."--Choice "Professor Goldin has established herself as the leading scholar of women's historic role in the American economy: there is no other book like this one."--Jonathan Hughes, Northwestern University "Everyone who works in economic history is by now well aware of Claudia Goldin's research on women in the American labor force. She is surely the leading scholar engaged in research on quantitative aspects of the history of women in the labor market."--Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley "The most significant work of scholarship dealing with the changing economic role of American women. Based upon a large body of new data, its subtle analysis of the economic and noneconomic factors influencing female employment, the relative earnings of females, and the impact of recent policy measures concerning women will become the necessary starting point for all economists, historians, and other social scientists interested in the history (and current status) of women in the United States."--Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester "Claudia Goldin's Understanding the Gender Gap is an outstanding achievement. She shows that economic discrimination by gender has not been a rigid constant, but instead has a complex and varied history. Her synthesis of market and institutional analysis is a real step forward in writing the economic history of American women."--Gavin Wright, Stanford University "Goldin does economics as it should be done: by explaining a fact--the rise of women at work--and making sure beforehand that the fact is really so. She proceeds on the novel premise that economists can learn from sociologists, demographers, historians, and the very words of the women in question--and then repays the debt twice over. Filled with startling new findings, her book combines the excellences of first-rate history and first-rate economics. Goldin's economic history satisfies the Fifty Year Criterion for excellence in scholarship: will it still be read and used fifty years from now?"-- Donald N. McCloskey, University of Iowa "Claudia Goldin's book is by far the best historical study of working women in the U.S. It marries careful analysis of evidence from diverse sources with economic theories of wage determination, employment, and discrimination. This study will greatly influence future research on the economic position of women."--Gary S. Becker, University of Chicago "Claudia Goldin's Understanding the Gender Gap is a fundamental contribution to the literature on female labor supply and wages. Her study enriches our understanding of these topics by placing recent developments in historical context and by using the economics of incentives to explain historical trends. She convincingly demonstrates both the power of economic models to explain social phenomena and the value of historical context in interpreting contemporary economic phenomena."--James J. Heckman, Yale University "Claudia Goldin's skills as historian and economic analyst are evident throughout this richly textured volume. Her detailed review of the economic position of American women provides valuable background for understanding contemporary gender issues."--Victor R. Fuchs, Stanford University "Claudia Goldin's Understanding the Gender Gap is an excellent study of the evolution of gender differences. It combines insightful analyses of the impact of market factors with an appreciation of the role of institutions, social norms, and prejudices. This book provides an invaluable historical perspective for considering contemporary issues."--Francine D. Blau, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "Goldin's imaginative use of statistical data answers many of our most pressing questions about women's participation in the labor force....Essential source material for students and scholars of women's history and labor history."--Alice Kessler-Harris, Rutgers University "With the appearance of Claudia Goldin's book, we have for the first time a full-scale systematic treatment of the economic history of women's work in America. Throughout, Goldin confronts this central question: to what extent has the gender gap been an economic artifact (i.e., a real measure of the relative productive value of men and women to employers)? to what extent a socially constructed artifact of women's inequality (i.e., by her exact definition, 'wage discrimination')? Her findings bring women's labor history on to a new plane. Not many books generate the intellectual force to reshape a subject. Goldin's is, I think, one of them. Her book will be widely read and closely studied and, for many years to come, will sit at the elbows of all serious students of American women's history."--David Brody, University of California, Davis "Perhaps the most lasting merit of Understanding the Gender Gap will be that it advocates and begins a project of just that sort in which the economic history of American women will not be regarded as a narrow subspecialty largely isolated from the major themes and developments of the economy as a hole. That her book suggests so many hypotheses and extensions to be pursued is testimony to Claudia Goldin's achievement."--Journal of Economic Literature "To date most economic analyses of sex differences concentrate on 1960 to 1987 data. Goldin uses data from a longer time frame to show that basing one's conclusions on a narrow time period can lead to erroneous conclusions. Thus Goldin's contribution is not just to shed new light on the causes of sex differences, but to illustrate to the profession as a whole the importance of the historical perspective."--Solomon Polachek, SUNY Binghamton