Something I was pondering over the weekend…
The average life expectancy in the United States is 75.15 years for men and 80.97 for women. What changes would we see in our society if life expectancy for women dropped to 55?
I feel that if the situations were reversed there would be a larger change so I’d like to start with a “simpler” situation.
ETA: What field of study would this question fall under? Sociology?
You only have to look back a few hundred years.
But a few hundred years ago, men didn’t live 20 years longer than women. I’m assuming that the life expectancy for men would remain at 75.
I was under the impression that high infant mortality rates had a lot to do with those numbers.
The first thing would be pension and Social Security law changes. If most women weren’t living to retirement, they’d vote for any politician promising that they’d retire earlier.
Add to that high rates of women not surviving pregnancy and childbirth, and people of both sexes being killed by illnesses and injuries easily cured today.
If a woman’s life expectancy was in her mid-50s, you’d get far fewer women waiting until their late 30 or early 40s to start families. Family support systems are still very important when raising your kids - particularly for people who can’t afford daycare - Grandma is often a secondary caregiver and if it isn’t likely she will be there, you may end up making different family planning decisions. Or we may need to structure our social services differently to care for motherless children and the children of working moms who don’t have a family support structure. Or perhaps child rearing would become something fathers and grandfathers shared more equally in.
I’m not so sure of this, men are more reluctant to go to doctors than women, and all the older couples that I know the woman plays a big part in reminding and coordinating the health care. Plus if grandfathers start to take care of children, that puts more stress on them, and will likely affect their life expectancy.
I think if women could only expect to live until 55, we’d see a whole lot more single-income families (the man being the bread-winner). If I’m only getting 55 years, I’m not spending every damned one of them after high school working for The Man.
Good point…I hadn’t considered that. The second voice reminding you to take your pills or to eat a piece of fruit instead of cake. The premature death of one sex would likely have a strong negative impact on the life expectancy of the other.
Golf courses would be a lot busier.
At least in recent Western society, women’s contributions post-55 have been largely in the area of family cohesiveness. So if they typically died at 55, I think that’s the main thing we’d lose.
It seems like we’d also see a huge competition for wives, since demand would outpace supply. Perhaps we’d see some degree of polyandry.
Speculatively, I think we’d see the smallest change with the loss of men after age 62 (average retirement age). Quite a few men are high earners/ big contributors to the economy in late career, but after that IMHO they have a smaller role. I tentatively agree that losing men at 55 would have a bigger impact than losing women, but I think if you push the age out a few years the situation would reverse.
I wouldn’t be worried about looking for a job.
twicks, 53
Most of the married men in my family (and my FIL as well) would be in big trouble.
We depend on our wives to take care of many things that we’d have to figure out for ourselves.
Why, is that your year of birth in your username? 
hehe, no, not quite. I’m a spry 38yo, so I’d figure it out just fine, though it’d be a real pain to figure out where everything is, as Mrs. Butler figures out all that stuff. I do things that are gross, or need heavy lifting, and my wife handles all the finances, organization of “stuff”, and planning.
My father, and FIL, have been running on pretty much the same program for 40 or so years. The banks wouldn’t recognize their signature for anything, and having them need to figure out housekeeping, finances, and organization would be a daunting task.
Either way, all three of us would be far worse off without our wives. (no, she’s not looking over my shoulder). I’d imagine that our expected life spans as widowers would be significantly less than if our wives were alive, and a whole lot less comfortable. I could still pay bills, raise my daughter, and take care of my house (though I’d have to hire in for things, as I have no real domestic repair skills with regard to details), but I’d likely eat far worse, not dress as well, nor be as inclined to take care of my health.
It is to laugh.
My husband’s 30, a year younger than I am, and there’s tons I do that he has no idea about. He’s a very smart guy - I don’t mean to imply that he can’t do the things that I do, he most certainly can - but there’s lots that I just take care of. And since I have it handled, he doesn’t trouble himself about it.
I manage the finances and do all the online banking, which he’d have to figure out if I suddenly poofed out of existence. I do the lion’s share of the housekeeping and cooking. I keep track of our health care, who’s up for what check ups when. (I don’t make his appointments for him - he knows his schedule better than I - but I do nag him gently about it.) I manage car registrations and licenses, passport gettings and renewings, travel appointments and necessities. Regular home maintenance - I track that too (although not as well as I probably should). Taxes, insurance, escrow accounts, all me.
Again, SpouseO’s a smart guy - he’d figure all this out and could manage it himself just fine. But since I’m on it, he doesn’t worry about it, and likes not having to care about it. Same goes for the things he does - I like not having to worry about that stuff, and I know he’s got it, so I don’t care.
To go along with this, I think we’d see more younger mothers. Among well-educated, affluent Americans, it seems typical for women to put off motherhood until their 30s. If you know you’re checking out at 55, the incentives for waiting–getting established in your career, having a few years in your 20s to live it up–become a lot less compelling.