My guest today is Harvard University economist Claudia Golden.

She spent almost 50 years researching the experience of women in the labor market, and she

smashed through more than her own fair share of barriers along the way.

If you had ideas, if you were interested, if you could take the heat, and there was

a lot of heat, then you were a member of the inner group.

Welcome to People I Mostly Admire, with Steve Levitt.

Claudia's pulled this research together into a brand new book entitled Career and Family,

Women's Century Long Journey Towards Equity.

I've had so many questions for, and the only thing I have to be on the lookout for is

that sometimes people who study a topic for 50 years, they forget how little everyone

else knows about the subject.

I've got to make sure our conversation stays understandable for late people.

Claudia, it's so nice to talk.

It has been ages since we've seen each other, so you are probably the world's leading expert

on the experience of women in the US labor market.

People talk about the gender wage gap.

When I was a kid, I remember from an early age seeing protesters carrying signs that said

59 cents on them.

Can you just explain where that number comes from?

How do we define the gender wage gap?

So the BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics produces every year a single number.

You take all employed women on the one hand and all employed men on the other hand.

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