Feminist Discernment in the Economy: Downshifting as a Solution to the Work/Family Crisis

The men and women engaging a negative masculinity in their work lives compete with one another to make the most money often by working long hours in high stress, rigid jobs. Many of these workers operate under the false belief that bringing home as much money as they can to their families is the only or best way to care for them; however, families have non-monetary needs as well. The problem of balancing long hours with other care activities (caring for an elderly relative, raising and caring for children, caring for a spouse, caring for the worker's own body) creates work-family crisis. The idea coming out of traditional masculinity, that more money is always better, makes finding time for non-monetary care activities almost impossible.

As men and women look at hours worked and money earned when trying to find and make time for their families, they realize that there is an overemphasis on maximizing money in work culture and ethic. This leads them to abandon the negative masculinity, too focused on money and devoid of non-monetary caring, in favor of a positive masculinity that incorporates and values caring activities and is less money-focused. In other words, workers begin voluntarily working fewer hours and earning less to make more time for their families.

Between 1990 and 1996, 19 percent of adult Americans voluntarily chose to earn less money2 The choice to earn less money by working less or by working differently is part of the downshifting movement, a reaction against the competitive careerism born of negative masculinity. In order to live on smaller pay checks, downshifting families must also learn to live with less, to consume less. This rejection of competitive consumerism (competing with the Joneses), the idea that consuming more is better, goes hand in hand with rejecting competitive careerism, the idea that working more and earning more is better.

Competitive careerism has been the dominant work culture in the United States throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. This culture demands that workers dedicate themselves entirely to earning as much money for their families or themselves as possible. Competitive careerism is a throwback to a construction of masculinity that positions men as breadwinners and limits caring for family in favor of breadwinning. Although competitive careerism is the product of a negative construction of masculinity, workers regardless of gender become part of this culture. With the emergence of equal opportunity feminism, many women adopted masculine breadwinning values, embracing competitive careerism, a unisex, negative masculine modern form of breadwinning.

In order to succeed, employed persons compete with each other to maximize the amount of money they bring home by working long hours, subjugating themselves to their employers, unionizing, and maximizing firm profits. This is all done at the expense of the worker’s health, familial relationships, and beliefs. Workers who make less money (including marginalized populations) are identified as losers in this competition and their “failure” is attributed to personal failings and inadequacy.

Downshifting is a voluntary choice to earn less by devoting fewer hours to paid labor. This career move corresponds to a lifestyle change that is less market-centered and more family-centered. After downshifting, the individual has more time for unpaid work, family, friendships, spirituality, health, relaxation, and/or hobbies, and less money to spend on consumerism. The decision to downshift requires an individual give up the culture of competitive consumerism, often replacing purchasing power with sharing power.

Downshifting reflects both a reconstructed masculinity that does not equate the masculine with a destructive, competitive breadwinning, and a reconstruction of the traditionally masculine sphere to include elements of traditional femininity. The competition that has come to define participation in the workforce gives way to a more feminine nurturing and caring—nurturing the body and avoiding overstress, caring for others during the newly freed hours, even caring for coworkers and neighbors who are no longer competitors in the culture of competitive consumerism and careerism.

Increasingly, firms and financial institutions are coming to accept and accommodate downshifting as a normal part of the individual’s and family’s participation in the labor force. Their accommodating response requires these traditionally masculine entities acknowledge, accept, and support the traditionally feminine aspects of the worker’s life—his or her familial obligations, his or her bodily need for rest, etc., bridging the constructed and artificial chasm between the masculine and the feminine. The downshifting transformation begins with the family and the individual and expands to include the firm, culture of work, and economy.

In a recent study of American work culture, The Families and Work Institute found that executives who lived "dual centric" lives, lives that balanced work and family, felt more successful than executives who lived "work-centric" lives, lives that put a substantially higher priority on work than on family. The dual-centric lifestyle is marked by reduced work hours (about 5 hours less per week than their work-centric counterparts) and characterizes about one third of the executive population.3

These executive downshifters are not alone. Many white collar and some blue collar workers are choosing to downshift. The New American Dream, an organization dedicated to helping Americans downshift, conducted a pole in 2004 of the American public and found that around 80% of Americans felt that the "American dream" and culture had become too materialistic.12 Many Americans are refuting the negative masculinity embodied in the American dream by choosing to downshift and better integrate family work and paid work. For many workers, women especially, the end of the paid work day is the beginning of the family work day. By integrating family and paid work through downshifting, many workers and families are finding solutions to the double day problem.

How are they doing it? Downshifters find ways to work from home, make career moves to less rigid industries and firms, and even accept demotions to less demanding positions. Of course, the decision to work less and earn less requires that the downshifter spend less as well. These Americans are choosing to work and spend less and differently in order to live more balanced lives and create a work culture that engages a positive masculinity (and also a positive femininity). Through downshifting, the worker's work life (the traditionally masculine sphere) and home life (the traditionally feminine sphere) become complimentary instead of antagonistic. The negative masculine obsession with earning the most money is tempered by feminine caring for the body and the family, giving way to the conscious decision to earn only enough money to meet the family's needs. Men and women workers come to value their home life (a traditionally devalued feminine sphere) in addition to their work life. Downshifting presents a solution to the work-family crisis and the "burnout" many career-oriented individuals suffer from by replacing negative hyper-masculinity with positive masculinity tempered by femininity.

Increasingly downshifters are creating internet blogs, webrings, and forums to share their experiences with downshifting. These informal and personal presentations of downshifting unite discussion of familial, mental, and physical wellbeing and career goals--the traditionally feminine with the traditionally masculine. Their blogs reveal how downshifting disrupts the traditional relegation of productive activity to the competitive masculine sphere. Earning less requires individuals and families to spend less money, but it also allows them to spend more time engaged in unpaid work. Suddenly, the traditionally feminine sphere, the home, becomes the place of more of the family’s productive work. In addition to child rearing, food preparation, cleaning, and companionship, the downshifting home frequently produces food, clothing, entertainment, and replacements for other consumer goods. SockknittingMama’s blog “Downshifting-Path to Simplicity” documents a family’s voluntary decision to earn less, spend less, and live a simpler, more community-centered and eco-friendly lifestyle. In the webgroup “Nomad4ever", a post about downshifting gives advice on the financial aspects of the downshifting career move, including a discussion of debt, reduction in spending, and financial planning as it pertains to living a more fulfilling life.

As downshifting becomes an increasingly common choice for individuals and families, firms must become increasingly accommodating of nontraditional, noncompetitive career moves. As employers, firms that want to keep talented and trained employees electing to downshift need to transform the definition and structure of work in their companies to accommodate their downshifting workforce. Supportive employers of downshifting employees have to rethink what terms like "full-time," "part-time," and "workplace" mean, and how to motivate employees, measure work, and compensate it fairly.4

Firms are responding by creating a less rigid and controlled work environment, implementing job-sharing, sabbaticals, and allowing employees to be more in control of their careers and work habits. Morningstar Inc. in Chicago calls itself an "employer of choice", offering its employees "growth opportunities, a dynamic work environment and a relaxed work-lifestyle."5 By creating a more relaxed, less competitive, and more accommodating workplace, or a workplace characterized by elements of traditional femininity as well as masculinity, many employers are able to retain their (usually white collar) downshifting employees.

New firms are springing up that allow workers to work from home in traditionally demanding industries. Organizations like The Project for the Retention of Attorneys help downshifters create innovative schedules and jobs for themselves that accommodate their need or desire to spend more time at home. Some firms are adopting shorter work weeks and more flexible schedules to help their employees lead more balanced lives.

As producers, firms are responding to the growing market created by the downshifting population with innovative products and services. These include the production of more durable and sustainable goods, financial tools tailored to downshifters, downshifting advice texts, and career coaching for downshifters. Prudential’s Canadian website features a downshifting planner as the first on-line financial planning calculator or tool on its “Useful Planning Tools” webpage. Sally Lever’s life coaching business positions itself as a career coaching service for downshifters. These services are both profit driven and socially responsible—that is, they actually improve the lifestyles and lives of their consumers.