THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD MAN: MANHOOD, CLASS, AND RETIREMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1910s-1950s by Gregory John Wood BS, Northern Michigan University, 1996 MA, Wayne State University, 1999 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Gregory John Wood It was defended on February 3, 2006 and approved by Lisa Brush, PhD, Sociology Maurine Greenwald, PhD, History Werner Troesken, PhD, History Dissertation Director: Richard Oestreicher, PhD, History ii Copyright © by Gregory John Wood 2006 iii THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD MAN: MANHOOD, CLASS, AND RETIREMENT IN THE UNITED STATES, 1910s-1950s Gregory John Wood, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2006 As the life cycle began to expand after 1900, "old age" became a new twentieth-century site where, like the nineteenth-century factory, working-class males struggled to define and sustain identities as "men." By studying "the problem of the old man," this dissertation revises historians' understandings of gender and class -- showing how gender, class, and aging have fundamentally intersected and, in the process, shaped the histories of work, the welfare state, and organized labor. The first three chapters explore how the rise of mass production catalyzed "the problem of the old man" during the 1910s and 1920s, and why state pensions emerged as the principal way to uphold manhood in later life. Chapter 1 examines how mass production employers emphasized youth and speed in the workplace, making "growing old" a major source of unease about manhood. Chapter 2 addresses why many experts in social provision concluded by 1929 that only pensions from the state could uphold the masculinity of the aging male breadwinner. Chapter 3 looks at how both the state and the workers tried to find ways to uphold the economic foundations of manhood during the Great Depression, ranging from Social Security to labor organizing. The final chapters examine the shifting class and gender politics that accompanied the rise of modern "retirement" during the 1940s and 1950s. Chapter 4 discusses how expanding job opportunities, increasing incomes, and suburbanization made middle-class status a key iv foundation of manhood after World War II. As a result, aging professionals displaced factory workers in "the problem of the old man" discourse. Chapter 5 examines the strategies older men used to affirm manhood after retirement. As in their "working years," retired men struggled to be youthful and "productive." Many retired men busied themselves with rigorous routines of sports, "tinkering," and yard work in order to demonstrate their manhood. During the postwar years, as the average length of life continued to expand, men embraced a contradictory definition of manhood that depended on males' ability to sustain economic success and youthful bodies -- even as their bodies aged and they faced the end of their careers due to retirement. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .......................................................................................................XI 1.0 INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF THE OLD MAN ................................... 1 1.1 GENDER, LABOR, AND MANHOOD............................................................. 6 1.2 HISTORIOGRAPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS.............................................. 12 1.3 THE CHAPTERS .............................................................................................. 15 2.0 CHAPTER 1: MANHOOD, WORK, AND "GROWING OLD" DURING THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY.......................................................................................... 20 2.1 MANHOOD, YOUTH, AND INDUSTRIALIZATION................................. 22 2.2 MASS PRODUCTION WORK AND THE OLDER MAN........................... 33 2.3 EXPERTS AND THE AGE PROBLEM......................................................... 37 2.4 HIRING AGE LIMITS AND DISMISSALS .................................................. 43 3.0 CHAPTER 2: GENDER AND THE STATE PENSION IDEA DURING THE 1920S…… .................................................................................................................................... 71 3.1 ENVISIONING OLD AGE POVERTY .......................................................... 73 3.2 SAVINGS AND FAMILIES ............................................................................. 87 3.3 INDUSTRIAL PENSIONS ............................................................................... 93 3.4 THE POORHOUSE .......................................................................................... 99 3.5 PRIVATE OLD AGE HOMES ...................................................................... 106 3.6 THE STATE PENSION LAWS OF THE 1920S.......................................... 114 4.0 CHAPTER 3 : AGING MEN AND THE "CRISIS" OF MASCULINITY DURING THE 1930S................................................................................................................ 120 4.1 THE OLDER MAN AS "THE FORGOTTEN MAN"................................ 122 4.2 THE WELFARE STATE................................................................................ 135 4.3 CONSUMPTION AND HEALTH ADVICE ................................................ 144 vi 4.4 ORGANIZING................................................................................................. 154 5.0 CHAPTER 4 : GENDER, CLASS, AND RETIREMENT ANXIETIES, 1940S- 1950S…… .................................................................................................................................. 170 5.1 MANHOOD AND CLASS AFTER WORLD WAR II................................ 171 5.2 THREATS TO MANHOOD IN RETIREMENT......................................... 181 5.3 CORPORATE RETIREMENT PREPARATION ....................................... 195 5.4 SAYING GOODBYE: THE LAST DAYS OF WORK................................ 202 5.5 HANGING ON: RETIREMENT AVOIDANCE ......................................... 215 6.0 CHAPTER 5 : RECONSTRUCTING MANHOOD IN RETIREMENT, 1940S- 1950S…… .................................................................................................................................. 221 6.1 NEGOTIATING GENDER IN THE HOUSEHOLD .................................. 223 6.2 LEISURE ACTIVITIES ................................................................................. 248 6.3 SOCIAL CLUBS FOR THE RETIRED........................................................ 262 6.4 RETIREMENT RESISTANCE: EMPLOYMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.................................................................................................. 272 7.0 CONCLUSION : THE PROBLEM OF SYLVESTER STALLONE ................. 280 APPENDIX A............................................................................................................................ 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................... 290 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Average Life Expectancy in the US, 1900-2000…………………………………. 31 Table 2. Men: Average Life Expectancy in the US, 1900-2000…………………………… 31 Table 3. Women: Average Life Expectancy in the US, 1900-2000……………………….. 32 Table 4. Men employed as operatives in the auto industry, 1930…………………………..44 Table 5. Men employed as laborers in the auto industry, 1930……………………………. 44 Table 6. Men listed as employed throughout the United States, 1930…………………….. 44 Table 7. Men employed at the Ford Rouge factory, February 1930……………………….. 46 Table 8. Men Employed As Operatives in the Steel Industry, 1930……………………….. 46 Table 9. Men Employed As Laborers in the Steel Industry, 1930…………………………. 47 Table 10. Women employed as semiskilled workers in the auto industry, 1930………….. 68 Table 11. Women employed as unskilled workers in the auto industry, 1930…………….. 69 Table 12. Passage of State Pension Laws, 1923-1931……………………………………... 116 viii Table 13. Age distribution of men at Studebaker, 1927 and 1940 (Percentages)………….. 126 Table 14. Social Security coverage by race, 1938…………………………………………. 140 Table 15. Social Security coverage by gender, 1938………………………………………. 140 Table 16. Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Citations that Focus on Women in Retirement………………………………………………………………………………….. 234 Table 17. Men and Women as Retirees in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Citations……………………………………………………………………………………. 234 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. "The End of the Trail," Detroit Labor News, 6 July 1928……………………… 58 Figure 2. "A Real Haunted House," American Labor Legislation Review, June 1929, 153.. 84 Figure 3. "James Sayers Retired After 45 Years' Service," Amalgamated Journal, 25 September 1924, 5……………………………………………………………………………………... 97 Figure 4. Retired men playing shuffleboard in Texas. Recreation, July 1943, 224……….. 252 x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It takes a substantial amount of time to research, write, and revise a dissertation. In the process, I gained, like many of the individuals I discuss in the chapters that follow, more than just a few gray hairs. As I aged with this dissertation, I had the pleasure to work with many wonderful people. Many individuals shaped this project along the way: they read drafts of the text, pushed me to re-think and revise, sustained me with friendship and support, and helped me to earn funding that facilitated its completion. It is a pleasure to thank my fellow travelers along this exciting journey. My doctoral committee at the University