The End of Men

I jokingly refer to a set of trends related to changing gender roles as "the end of men." I am joking, so please don't send hate mail.

But there is a growing set of data and trends indicating that men are not as well equipped for the demands and stresses of modern society as women.  Men die younger, have substantially higher substance abuse rates and are much more likely to be in jail. 

Recent studies also show a major shift in mental health, with depression rising among men and decreasing among women.

Men don't do as well in school as women.  The chart below is from The Rise of Wives, a Pew study on marital changes caused by women outpacing men in education and earnings growth over the past couple of decades.

    

The shift towards women in college is so pronounced - over 58% of U.S. undergrads are female - that many universities have affirmative action programs for men. 

Women still earn less than men, but the gap is closing.  The Rise of Wives points out that women's inflation adjusted earnings grew 44% from 1970 to 2007, compared with just 6% for men. 

Structural economic shifts will likely result in additional gains for women. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook job forecast shows that categories with higher levels of women employment are expected to outperform categories dominated by men over the next 10 years.  This means the earnings gap should continue to close, and earnings parity may happen by the end of the next decade.   

We're also seeing a shift towards women small business owners, a trend we highlighted several years ago in the Intuit Future of Small Business report Changing Face of Entrepreneurs.

Adding to this is a recent study by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute.  While they don't explicitly state it, you can't read their research summary without thinking their results show that women are better suited for small business ownership and management than men. 

So while I am joking about the end of men, the rise of women is a clear trend. 

Comments

[Viagra Online Without Prescription]

That's terrible news for the gay community. indeed there's is still hope and ironically it relies in heterosexual community.

[Roger C.]

It will be my friend. Women are not so kind as men have been to them. This is not caused by some sort of divine providence but anti male governmental policies such as the devotion of the Stimulus Package to women, Title IX, female based learning models and funding in schools, Affirmative Action, "women first" provisions in the House Financial Reform Bill along with women only loans and scholarships among other legislation.

It is due to globalization which has created a service sector and consumer based economy where 72% of GDP comes from consumer consumption. An economy based on debt I might add. The course we have set is unsustainable. I am no stranger to the victory that women have been celebrating over men. I understand that as men we are no longer a part of the family and the lives of our children.

Matriarchal social structures do not survive for long, they have stagnant and declining birth rates, low production as well as low technological innovation and output. One thing that is ubiquitous to all matriarchies is the lack of male paternal investment in offspring. A social decline is a foot that is unprecedented in human history. There are dire times ahead for our country.

[Scott Fox, Click Millionaires]

Thanks for a great post.

These interesting (scary?) statistics suggest that women are finally getting/achieving more long-deserved opportunities.

It would be unfortunate if that progress is at the expense of us poor men!