A lesson in Barbie labor economics

The Indicator from Planet Money

NPR

Business

4.7 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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.

Related Episodes:
Want more Barbie-nomics? Check out our episode on how Mattel turned the Barbie brand around.

Transcript

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0:00.0	NPR.
0:12.1	This weekend, like many other people, I put on a pink outfit and went to see the new Barbie
0:17.1	movie.
0:18.1	The film made over $300 million worldwide during its opening weekend.
0:22.6	The Barbie verse is definitely having a moment.
0:25.5	Yes it is.
0:26.5	But you know, Barbie has actually been part of life in the US for decades.
0:30.3	Can?
0:31.3	Not so much.
0:32.3	That's true.
0:33.3	But because Barbie has lived through so many shifts in American culture, she's become
0:38.6	this lens through which you can talk about basically anything from fashion and politics
0:44.0	to race and body image, and even our favorite topic, economics.
0:48.9	This is The Indicator from Plata Money, I'm Adrienne Ma.
0:54.4	While there has never been an economist Barbie, her many careers over 200 of them tell
1:00.0	us a lot about the journey of women in the American workforce.
1:03.4	Today on the show, we take a crash course in labor economics Barbie style.
1:12.0	For today's lesson in Barbie labor economics, we had one particular teacher in mind.
1:17.6	She actually retired a few years ago, but she was kind enough to reach back in her memories
1:21.8	to talk to us.
1:23.1	My name is Barb Flowers.
1:25.1	I was a coordinator in economic education at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
	...

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