It’s the end of men and the rise of women? Great. Too bad the sinking Titanic that is our industrialized civilization doesn’t care. Men and women must unite to save the home we too often take for granted.
—
Back in 2010 Hanna Rosin wrote an article in The Atlantic titled “The End of Men.” The article began with these observations:
“Earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. Most managers are now women too. And for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same. For years, women’s progress has been cast as a struggle for equality. But what if equality isn’t the end point? What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women?”
The article was followed by a book, published in 2012, The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, which I’ve finally had time to read. The promo for the book notes:
“At this unprecedented moment, women are no longer merely gaining on men; they have pulled decisively ahead by almost every measure. Already ‘the end of men’—the phrase Rosin coined—has entered the lexicon as indelibly as Betty Friedan’s ‘feminine mystique,’ Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘second sex,’ Susan Faludi’s ‘backlash,’ and Naomi Wolf’s ‘beauty myth’ have.”
There certainly are indications that women are doing better than they have, and that men are having a more difficult time. For instance, depression, which has always been more prevalent in women, by a ratio of 2 to 1, is now on the rise in men. And women are moving into jobs formerly dominated by men such as medicine and pharmacy.
But it all feels a bit like moving up to a better deck on the Titanic. There are some pretty strong indicators that the Ship of Industrial Civilization is going under and it won’t be much comfort to women or men if the life-support system on the planet collapses with it.
Here’s how one visionary, Richard Heinberg, put it in his book, Peak Everything: Waking UP to the Century of Declines,
“Once we accept that energy, fresh water, and food will become less freely available over the next few decades, it is hard to escape the conclusion that while the 20th century saw the greatest and most rapid expansion of the scale, scope, and complexity of human societies in history, the 21st will see contraction and simplification. The only real question is whether societies will contract and simplify intelligently or in an uncontrolled, chaotic fashion.”
Another visionary, Rob Watson, CEO and Chief Scientist of the EcoTech International Group, (who Pulitzer-Prize winning author Tom Friedman calls one of the best environmental minds in America), puts it this way,
“People don’t seem to realize it that it is not like we’re on the Titanic and we have to avoid the iceberg. We’ve already hit the iceberg. The water is rushing in down below. But some people just don’t want to leave the dance floor; others don’t want to give up on the buffet. But if we don’t make the hard choices, nature will make them for us.”
It’s time to prepare the lifeboats for launching rather than debating who’s going to run the ship. It’s time to call “all hands on deck” as we face the massive changes going on in the world. Men and women need to unite on this one. Many of us have children and grandchildren we care about and we owe them a better future than the one they’ll face if we stay on our present course.
Like The Good Men Project on Facebook
–Photo: AP
You are correct it is not about who’s ahead, it is about working together. Working together with each other and the planet.
Thank you
Men have always been expected to provide, build and die if necessary. That message has been drummed into us since we were kids. The mistake Feminists made was buying into the same lie that we did. They wanted to become part of a system that treats people like appliances at best or cannon fodder at worst. Unless you are at the top of the pyramid like a CEO, politician or lawyer.
Good grief Jed,how in the frigging world does anyone not get that humans are in this together?!And with Hillary poised to run on a it’s a woman’s turn platform,things will become even more divided and polarized.Feminists have already labeled Obama’s initiative to help boy’s as sexist.Barack Obama is sexist.Rrrighttt.After six long years spent avoiding doing anything to address the needs of his most loyal voters,he throws their children a ratty, old,used, chew toy and feminists bitch about it! Wow,for real?Hillary stood by and offered no criticism of her feminists allies.As the father of two black boys who are of voting… Read more »
Good grief Jed.How in the frigging world does anyone not get that humans are in this together?!
Except that her “stats” are rubbish, not in the sense that they’re inaccurate, but, in the conclusions she draws from them. Quick example, the college stat she uses, while true, does not reflect that women outnumber men in the low earning potential degrees, mostly arts and that sort of thing. If I’m not mistaken, in the medical/science side, it’s more or less equal between genders. There’re still the business/financial and engineering degrees that see no such thing. Hell, I’m doing Biological Anthropology at the Australian National University and I can see it on a daily basis. This degree comes under… Read more »
The key for me is that we’re truly all in this together. It doesn’t work well to put women down and restrict the work they can do in the world and it is equally unhelpful to shame and disparage men. I think Sam Keen got it right when he said, “The radical vision of the future rests on the belief that the logic that determines either our survival or our destruction is simple: 1. The new human vocation is to heal the Earth. 2. We can only heal what we love. 3. We can only love what we know. 4.… Read more »
Chris, you sound like a bright young man and rest assured, they’ll always be a spot near the head of the table for bright minds, even if they reside in a male body. I don’t know how the education system treats males in Australia , but here in the U.S., it’s getting pretty shabby for guys. The jobs you mention (construction, sanitation, trucking, etc) certainly are available to men, because women in general don’t WANT them. They’re generally lower paying and they can reek havoc with your body (and your life). I ‘ve worked in heavy construction all my life… Read more »
We are most certainly in this together. And with that in mind we can’t just focus on one gender or the other and think everything will be okay.
I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to get at here. What exactly do you expect men to do? Rosins stats sort of speak for themself . If women wish to ‘take over’ fine. let them figure out the answers to the problems of the 21st century.
We sink or swim together. The battle of the sexes has no victor.
Jean, well said.