In Friedan's day, women were clearly the second sex. Not so today. Yes, many women are struggling with the challenge of combining family and work. But men do not have it easy either. They are increasingly less educated than women. They are bearing the brunt of the recession. The New York Times recently reported that "a full 82 percent of the job losses have befallen men." Reuters referred to the surging male unemployment rate as a "blood bath." Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "FastStats" show that men are less likely than women to be insured--and more likely to drink, smoke, and be overweight. They also die six years earlier than women on average.
Why are there no conferences, petitions, workshops, congressional hearings, or presidential councils to help men close the education gap, the health care gap, the insurance gap, the job-loss gap, and the death gap? Because, unlike women, men do not have hundreds of men's studies departments, research institutes, policy centers, and lobby groups working tirelessly to promote their challenges as political causes.
Read the rest of Christina Hoff Sommers here.
2 comments:
Good observations.
"Women have replaced agriculture as the lynch-pin to our economy. As a population, women now stand between what we imagine to be a worst case scenario and physical hunger. We must now redefine "discretionary income" as women's earnings have become essential."
Reflections on the New Great Depression
The standard response from women is "who cares" men had it good for so long it about time they got some of their own back. My estimate is that approximately 500 years will have to pass before that reasoning wears off.
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