Greg Kaplan and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl write in an abstract,
The physical toll of work is smaller now than in 1950, with workers shifting away from occupations in which people report experiencing tiredness and pain. The emotional consequences of the changing occupation distribution vary substantially across demographic groups. Work has become happier and more meaningful for women, but more stressful and less meaningful for men. These changes appear to be concentrated at lower education levels.
I have said that this is worth studying.
Mr. Kling has provided a link to this paper at NBER (National Bureau of Economic Research), which charges $5.00 for access to the paper. Those discouraged by the charge can read a free version at the primary author’s web page.
That link is
https://gregkaplan.uchicago.edu/sites/gregkaplan.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/kaplan_schulhofer-wohl_JEP_NBER_w24738.pdf
Thanks.
“For example, both men and women are less likely now than in 1950 to work as machine operators, assemblers and inspectors. For women, such jobs are associated with below-average happiness and meaningfulness, so the shift increases women’s happiness and meaning at work. For men, such jobs are associated with above-average happiness and meaningfulness, as well as below-average stress, so the same shift in the occupation distribution decreases the non-pecuniary value of work for men.”
This is interesting. A man wants to be a machine operator. I’ll go further than that: A man wants to be a machine. Maybe that’s the ideal man. The man of iron. Men have always been used as beasts of burden, doing donkey work. Then the metaphor changes in the age of steam, after the invention of the iron horse. A man becomes a cog. And that’s what he wants. Charlie Chaplin was wrong. Factory work is meaningful to men. Not to Charlie Chaplin, and not to women either. But men aren’t human. They’re machines. Tyler calls them brutes, but “robot” is perfectly apt.
What does woman want? Was will das Weib? Put any two women in a room and they will find meaning and purpose in life provided there’s a third woman they can undermine and humiliate and ostracise. As long as you can bully the third girl into an eating disorder, your life will be rich with purpose. That’s true for high school or a shop or an office or a retirement home. That’s why women live so long. Even in a retirement home, life has meaning because every table has a limited number of chairs. The hatred that women feel for other women means that women’s lives can always be fulfilling and purposeful.
“The highest-educated women actually show falling happiness and meaningfulness, similar to the overall findings for men.”
Also interesting.