Goldin’s Nobel shows the power of flexible work for women

When I saw the news that Harvard University’s Professor Claudia Goldin had

won the Nobel Prize in Economics

, I was just taking my first sip of black coffee. “That’s well-deserved,” I thought, reading that although she was the third woman to win the prize, she was the first to win it solo. Then, “I should write about this”. My still-caffeineless brain lurched into action, with a few grey cells beginning to outline a draft while the rest catalogued everything about my morning that could be shifted (meetings, laundry, my own breakfast) and everything that could not (diaper changes, daycare drop-off, my toddler’s breakfast).

Prof Goldin is best known for her work on women’s careers and how they can be derailed by marriage and motherhood. I felt hyperaware, in that moment, of my competing devotions: working and mothering. How quickly could I write this piece? Only as quickly as my maternal duties would allow. The irony tasted as bitter as the coffee.