Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University professor, has spent nearly her entire career investigating what drives the persistent gender gap in the labor market, and how to narrow it.
Through her ongoing research, Goldin, 77, has provided the first comprehensive account of American women's earnings and job market outcomes through the centuries, the Nobel committee said in the prize announcement.
"We are never going to have gender equality, or narrow the pay gap, until we have couple's equity," Goldin tells CNBC Make It.
True equity for dual-career couples remains "frustratingly out of reach," Goldin adds, because of "greedy jobs" and parenting norms.
Increasing government funding of child care and the number of high-paying jobs in which people can share duties, rather than burn out, can help narrow the gender pay gap, says Goldin.
Persons:
Claudia Goldin, Goldin, she's, it's
Organizations:
Harvard University, University of Chicago, CNBC