Nobel Laureate Claudia Goldin Explores “Why Women Won” at Cornell’s 2025 George Staller Lecture

Nobel laureate Claudia Goldin ’67 returned to Cornell University on September 25 to deliver the 2025 George Staller Lecture, captivating a packed audience in Rockefeller Hall’s Schwartz Auditorium. Her lecture, titled “Why Women Won,” revisited the U.S. women’s movement and its far-reaching impact, weaving data, history, and personal reflection into a compelling narrative of both triumph and unfinished business.

Goldin, a graduate of Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences and now a professor at Harvard University, made history in 2023 as the first individual woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economics. She began her talk by challenging the title itself, noting that nearly every woman who had read it asked skeptically, “Really? We won?” Her answer, nuanced and grounded in decades of research, traced the arc of women’s rights from the early 1960s to today.

She reminded her audience of the restrictive conditions faced by women only a few generations ago. Until the mid-20th century, women could be dismissed from jobs simply for getting married or becoming pregnant. They were denied mortgages in their own names, required to use their husbands’ identities on credit cards, and barred from juries. Despite such inequities, surveys in the early 1960s revealed that many Americans did not believe women experienced discrimination comparable to that faced by Black Americans. Goldin argued that the civil rights and anti-war movements helped spark change, offering women a blueprint for organizing and amplifying their voices as a political force.

Goldin identified the 1960s and 1970s as a watershed moment in the history of women’s rights. In 1964, “sex” was added—at the last minute—to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, explicitly banning employment discrimination based on gender. A wave of transformative policies and rulings followed: the Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress in 1972, Title IX was included in the 1972 Education Act, and Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. Her data revealed that nearly half of the key turning points in the U.S. women’s movement occurred within that decade. “In a very brief period of time, the world for women in the U.S., at least on paper, has changed,” she said.

However, Goldin emphasized that the progress was neither smooth nor universally embraced. Public opinion surveys showed that while Americans broadly agreed women should be able to work, participate in politics, and even aspire to the presidency, divisions among women themselves persisted. Debates raged over the impact of mothers’ employment on children and over the question of equal roles in business and government. Goldin noted that in many cases, disagreement among women was sharper than the divide between men and women.

She also examined the decline in enthusiasm for the women’s movement after the 1970s. The momentum of the Equal Rights Amendment’s passage provoked a backlash, mobilizing anti-feminist groups and leaving moderate supporters disillusioned. By 2000, fewer than one-third of women accepted the label “feminist,” a term that had become tarnished by polarization and political battles. According to Goldin, these divisions and the backlash have limited the extent to which women have fully realized the benefits of their legal rights.

Comparing the U.S. to other industrialized countries, Goldin pointed out that while America was quick to enshrine rights in law, it has lagged behind in providing benefits such as parental leave, maternity protections, and childcare support. She framed this contrast as a central question for future research: why Americans prioritize rights over benefits and how this emphasis shapes lived outcomes.

Despite acknowledging challenges, Goldin ended her lecture with optimism. Reflecting on her own journey since entering Cornell in 1963, she stressed how unimaginable her current role would have been had women’s rights remained stagnant. “I find it impossible to imagine that my role would be the same had women’s rights remained what they were when I entered this institution as an undergraduate,” she concluded.

The George Staller Lecture, named for longtime Cornell economics professor George Staller Ph.D. ’57, honors his contributions to undergraduate education. Goldin’s lecture not only celebrated past achievements but also invited her audience to grapple with the complexities of progress and the work that still lies ahead.