Customer Reviews

Understanding the Gender Gap: An Economic History of American Women (Nber Series on Long-Term Factors in Economic Development)

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I was forced to read this book for my Macroeconomics class and it honestly sounded somewhat interesting. But then I opened to the first chapter and realized I had made a major mistake in choosing this book for my outside reading assignment. Goldin is correct in her analysis of women in the workplace, but she is very redundant. She is attempting to address a socio-economic and politicized issue but is in fact only reiterating the history of women in the work place. Understanding the Gender Gap is merely a more detailed look at United States history. Any student that paid attention in class knows the fluctuation in labor force participation rates in women. The average person knows that females to this day are not making the same income of their male counterparts. They know that during the World Wars, increasing numbers of women left the kitchen to go to work and, after the war, were sent right back to their job as homemakers. She is not adding sufficient analysis of the economic data to in fact "understand" why such a gap should continue to exist.

She does not address those issues faced by women in daily life. Women pay more than males do for nearly everything. Dry cleaning for women is more expensive than for men; car repair work costs more; haircuts, shoes, everyday clothing... That is the gender gap; that is what Goldin should have been addressing rather than summarizing the history of American females.

This book accomplishes one goal which is to emphasize the point that women are still not receiving equality in the workplace, but it does not inspire the reader to fight against these injustices which was Goldin's purpose. If anything, it tires the reader of being told the same things over and over again. The book is also poorly organized and frequently jumps around to different eras in American history. Instead of moving chronologically, Goldin may make a reference to industrialization in the 1800's and in the space of a few pages, discuss World War I.

She also addresses things she is going to discuss later on in the book. "But survey evidence, presented in chapter 5, shows their forecasts..." (5) is an ideal example. She presents the point, then tells the reader that she plans on discussing it later. It disrupts the flow of the writing and confuses the reader with the constant mentions of different parts of the book, which, in many cases, the reader has not read yet. She also has quite long paragraphs, but they essentially say nothing. I found it thoroughly amusing that I could open to any page of the book, pick a random paragraph, read it, and know exactly what she is talking about.

If you are looking for a good read on females in the workplace, this book is most definately one I would NOT recommend.