Men in hardhats were once the heart of America’s working class;
now it is women in scrubs. What does this shift portend for our
future?
Pittsburgh
was once synonymous with steel. But today most of its mills are gone.
Like so many places across the United States, a city that was a
center of blue-collar manufacturing is now dominated by the service
economy―particularly health care, which employs more Americans than
any other industry. Gabriel Winant takes us inside the Rust Belt to
show how America’s cities have weathered new economic realities. In
Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods, he finds that a new working class has
emerged in the wake of deindustrialization.
As
steelworkers and their families grew older, they required more health
care. Even as the industrial economy contracted sharply, the care
economy thrived. Hospitals and nursing homes went on hiring sprees.
But many care jobs bear little resemblance to the manufacturing work
the city lost. Unlike their blue-collar predecessors, home health
aides and hospital staff work unpredictable hours for low pay. And
the new working class disproportionately comprises women and people
of color.
Today
health care workers are on the front lines of our most pressing
crises, yet we have been slow to appreciate that they are the face of
our twenty-first-century workforce. The Next Shift offers
unique insights into how we got here and what could happen next. If
health care employees, along with other essential workers, can
translate the increasing recognition of their economic value into
political power, they may become a major force in the twenty-first
century.