This research note explores the different meanings attached to the idea and experience of a fast pace of life. Based on material from the Mass-Observation Archive it argues that control over time is indicative of gender difference and that while largely the product of men and women's different positions vis-a-vis the labour market, there are also unconscious associations around gender and time which affect how successfully each sex manages to control time. Managing their time, like `reconciling' home and work, is felt to be harder for women than men because they are subject to the simultaneous but contradictory expectations to be both time-conscious and time-less. As a result, they tend to see a fast pace of life less positively than men.
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