ABSTRACT
I will argue that, as the production process became more capital intensive and integrated, the importance of converting labour time into a steady stream of effort increased. But converting time into effort became more difficult as work became increasingly unskilled, repetitive and monotonous, and as workers, especially male workers, became alienated from their tasks. For men, this alienation was partially the result of the growing gap between the nature of work under mass production and the gender norms of skilled men who, building on their and their fathers’ experiences in craft shops, associated
independence and decision-making power at work with masculinity. At Ford, the attempted solution to this problem went far beyond simply raising wages to compensate for the deterioration in working conditions. The increase in wages was part of a broader strategy to reconstruct the concepts of masculinity inherited from the nineteenth century. The new focus was on hard work and making useful products in the company of other men. Fraternalism replaced paternalism as a managerial strategy to convert labour time into effort, a strategy that limited employment opportunities for women.
