A lesson in Barbie labor economics (Classic)
The Indicator from Planet Money
NPR
4.7 • 9.5K Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2023
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After a stunning box office opening of more than $300 million worldwide for the new Greta Gerwig film, the Barbieverse is having its moment. So what better time to examine what Barbie's 200-plus careers over the decades—from fashion model to astronaut to teacher—tell us about real-life women in the workforce. Today on the show, a former economics educator gives us a Barbie pink-colored lens on the labor market.
You can find the St. Louis Fed's Barbie curriculum here.
Related episodes:
Want more Barbie-nomics? Check out our episode on how Mattel turned the Barbie brand around.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In a year full of seismic indicators, we've picked a select few we thought were with highlighting this week for another listen. |
| 0:06.5 | The episode I've chosen is all about the movie event of the year, Barbie. |
| 0:11.5 | The movie has now grossed over 1.4 billion dollars globally and could |
| 0:15.8 | spark a whole Mattel cinematic universe. But before Barbie became a global movie star, her evolution |
| 0:22.3 | over the decades told us a lot about the role of women in the American |
| 0:26.1 | workforce. Here's our lesson in Barbie labor economics. |
| 0:30.8 | NPR. NPR. This weekend, like many other people, I put on a pink outfit and went to see the new Barbie movie. |
| 0:48.0 | The film made over $300 million worldwide during its opening weekend. The Barbie verse is definitely having a moment. |
| 0:55.4 | Yes it is, but you know Barbie has actually been part of life in the US for decades. |
| 1:00.3 | Ken, not so much. That's true. |
| 1:03.0 | But because Barbie has lived through so many shifts in American culture, |
| 1:08.0 | she's become this lens through which you can talk about basically anything, |
| 1:12.0 | from fashion and politics to race and body image and even |
| 1:17.0 | our favorite topic economics. |
| 1:20.8 | This is the indicator from Flattamani. |
| 1:22.0 | I'm Adrian Ma. |
| 1:23.0 | And I'm Waylon Wong. |
| 1:24.0 | While there has never been an economist Barbie, |
| 1:27.0 | her many careers, over 200 of them, |
| 1:30.0 | tell us a lot about the journey of women in the American workforce. |
| 1:33.6 | Today on the show, we take a crash course in labor economics, Barbie style. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. |
| 1:46.0 | When your celebration of life is prepaid today, your family is protected tomorrow. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.