Almost – but before jubilation breaks out over the time gained, and this is muted anyway if one takes into account the microstructure of economic conditions in which the majority of older people, and above all of older women, have to live, it is worth considering the historical time sequence again. For if the statistical average of years of life is ascertained, as Ausubel and Grübler have done, a striking constant emerges: if the official working life of women and men is added up and followed over the period of a hundred years, then despite the rise in life expectancy and the later entry into working life, despite time-saving household technologies and early retirement, nothing has changed. Human working life, if human is taken to mean that of women and of men, constantly amounts to thirtyeight years of life over the period of a hundred years.19
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Politics of Time