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Men and Monotony: Fraternalism as a Managerial Strategy at the Ford Motor Company

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  • Lewchuk, Wayne A.

Abstract

The introduction of mass production transformed many skilled tasks into repetitive and monotonous jobs. In industries such as automobiles, the workforce remained predominantly male despite contemporary assessments that women could efficiently do many of these jobs. This article explores why. It is argued that employers such as Ford concluded that the conversion of labor time into effort would be more difficult in a mixed-gender workforce. The paper shows how Ford developed a fraternalist labor strategy, a men's club, whose objective was to accommodate men to monotony and maximize labor productivity.

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  • Lewchuk, Wayne A., 1993. "Men and Monotony: Fraternalism as a Managerial Strategy at the Ford Motor Company," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(4), pages 824-856, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:53:y:1993:i:04:p:824-856_05
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    Cited by:

    1. Ellen Mutari, 2000. "The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and Competing Visions of the Living Wage," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 32(3), pages 408-416, September.
    2. Ellen Mutari & Marilyn Power & Deborah Figart, 2002. "Neither Mothers Nor Breadwinners: African-American Women's Exclusion From US Minimum Wage Policies, 1912-1938," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(2), pages 37-61.
    3. Ellen Mutari, 2004. "Brothers and Breadwinners: Legislating Living Wages in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(2), pages 129-148.

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