Women, Majority In Workforce

What Are Men to do?

Yupp, it happened. The Labor Department finally announced it. Women have surpassed men in the workforce. That means there are more women employed than men. Its probably the first time that has ever happened and the consequences will be far reaching. Back in 1977, I wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review, “Three Men Two Women on a Raft” It became a Reprint best seller. In it I suggested that men were not going to rollover and let women take the power jobs in business or industry. I think I proved right on that score. I did not give enough weight to how the growing white collarization of the work force would result in women outnumbering men at workplace.

Three major factors are at work here. First was the increasingly rapid movement of manufacturing jobs overseas. Second as factory jobs moved out service jobs moved in. The finance, service, retail, education and medical care are now a majority in our labor market. Those are areas that women have traditionally dominated. It was through many of the unionized jobs in manufacture that the dreams of the American middle class became real. Without some very serious government intervention they will be gone forever. Three,185 women now graduate from college to every 100 men. This simply means that women were far more prepared for the conversion from manufacturing to service. Also means we need to encourage men to go on to college.

The implications of the this change will have the most far reaching effects on male female relationships, family life, the community most everything. We are already know that the present unemployment crisis has predominately effected men as their wives continue to work while they write resumes and try to get retrained. There are also reports of increased alcohol and drug use among discouraged men as well as physical abuse of wives and children. May just be the guys acting out their frustrations?

I do remember in my own work history when I moved from the factory floor to the office. It took me quiet a while to try and understand what all that paper shuffling was about? At the end of the day I was always trying to figure out just what did we produce? Yes, we created production schedules, we planned the work and did the logistics of needed materials etc. It was all necessary but it was not the same as actually building something on the shop floor and see it as part of a finished product.

I have often stood at the end of an automobile assembly line and watch a guy jump into a brand new car and drive it off the line into the parking lot. It always seemed absolutely magical to watch those thousands of parts be assembled in a couple of hours into a running machine. I know from my conversations with guys on the line they held the very same emotions. Now so many of them have been dumped out while their wives continue to work.

You don’t have to be Dr. Phil to figure out this is going to be a source of lots of brand new social problems. Keep in mind that for most of my adult life, like most men, I was the primary breadwinner.That meant I had a clear amount of authority within the family. That authority is now coming to an end. Many men are going to suffer severe trauma as it begins to register that it is the wife who might now take over the role of “breadwinner,” Just thinking about it gives me pause as to what might lie up ahead.


I have lived with and am now married to a professional women. I would not have had it any different. I need to add that in the fourth decade of my life I decided I had to get a college degree. Did that and went on to graduate degrees as well. I thought this was essential if I was to make it in the service world. It was that. It was also critical to my personal relationships. At times I had to work hard at it but I managed to stay engaged to very smart women including Kate my wife.

Okay, it’s not just that I have been able to understand the language of the professional but-but I know how to fix the dripping faucet, clear out a stopped up toilet, change a busted light switch, jump start the car, etc. All those blue collar things I know now come in handy as part of my role in the new relationship. I might advise men who are faced with relationships to the new women to of course go learn more about professional knowledge but also sharpen your Mr. fixit skills. Heck, that least we can do to keep up with the tidal wave of change that’s on the way. (Kate says “she couldn’t agree more.”)

Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.