Hanna Rosin's 'Men Are Obsolete'

In “The End of Men?,” an article featured in The Atlantic in summer 2010, author Hanna Rosin illustrates the drastic, ascending shifts perceived in modern society. Rosin poises the theory of how men were traditionally seen as the superior gender. The author believes there is a contractionary shift in gender roles and that the new era is “[B]etter suited to women” (Rosin 304). Recent studies show that women are becoming prominent in the workforce, education, and family. Accordingly, she explains how women are miraculously able to balance work while nurturing their children. Rosin believes that this occurs because men are not biologically made to tend children. Additionally, Rosin analyses how men lost “8 million jobs” during the Great Recession (Rosin 306). During that time, women were becoming what made a majority of the workforce. There were increases in women’s presence in what used to be male-dominated fields: school, politics, and business. Rosin questions this drastic shift concerning women and men’s roles in society, stating how they are now equally competing for jobs. Moreover, the way women behave now show their commendable abilities in the workforce and how society is changing as they establish their dominance and authority everyday. Once, women were frowned upon, but nowadays, more people favor having girls than boys. Today’s era is commending women with their admirable work ethic and self-worth. Throughout most of history, men dominated the

Right before reading this article, I read an article on Facebook about how some women are against feminism, because they either want to be treated as ladies, or believe that gender equality already came. I cannot and could not do anything for the former, except criticizing that those women are well socialized into the heteropatriarchy. However, if the second argument comes up, I will be able to use this document as a source for gender inequality; because this is a concise list of male privileges, it is more

The article The End of Men by Hanna Rosin talks about her viewpoint on how women are becoming the dominant sex over men. One reason Rosin uses to explain how women are becoming the dominant sex in the world is seen in her interview with Ronald Ericsson. He was the founding father in developing the technology for separating X and Y chromosomes found in sperm and his ideal outcome was to produce more boys. In the 90’s however, Ericsson began to notice that couples were requesting more girls and the ratio grew to as high as 2 to 1 in favor of having girls in some clinics. A new sperm selection method called MicroSort showed 75% of couples requesting girls. Overtime, women who called his clinic immediately said that they wanted a girl without hesitation. This change in female dominance is also seen in Ericssons immediate family. His 26-year-old granddaughter is a biochemist and his niece studied civil engineering at USC. When describing his grandsons, he says they were “bright and handsome”, however in school “their eyes seemed to glaze over”, which shows how males were beginning to lose interest in school more than females were. This is one reason that supports Rosin’s viewpoint.

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

In her book “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of us,” Kate Bornstein goes over a lot of the major issues regarding gender awareness and identity politics. She talks about the ideas of labeling ones self, understanding gender differences, how people view laws, behaviors, and the medical and scientific privilege that make transitioning challenging for a lot of people. Bornstein touches on many of the issues today that affect trans people. She includes poetry, pictures, quotes, essays, and a play to raise questions and discuss the idea of gender. This is a great book to introduce and discuss the issues that affect the lives of trans people as they navigate and explore the lines that define gender.

I agree with Rosin 's outlook to a certain point. When I look around my college campus, I can see the majority of students are female. I think that women are beginning to achieve a higher rank in the workforce and are gaining gender equality. I don 't think, however, that females are necessarily taking over the workforce. I believe men are supposed to be the ones caring and providing for their families. They should be the head of the household, the ones in charge of making important decisions that will benefit their family. But, of course, I can 't argue with the fact that women are becoming stronger leaders and are starting to take the place of men.

Portion of the world don’t discriminate men like how they discriminate women, things in the world give men the power and make the females feel as if they have no voice. I feel as if they should give women the same right as they do with the men but part of this wouldn’t change a thing. This give us a detail of how the world revolves around the men and not women, the power statement shows that we put women down but we don’t here there voice. Reading this article of “Mcintosh” it told me a lot on how men would treat the women with low self-steam. In the article they talk about how the males would treat the females on the things they would like to do. The white men also was against having the female in office or letting them participate in the real life situation going on in the world.

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

What is it going to take for people to be equal in this world? What is the point of putting men on such a high pedestal when they are no different than women? Why are women perceived as the “weaker” gender? All of these are questions that people have and want answers to. Its’ safe to say that Werhane, Posig, Gundry, Ofstein, and Powell were spot on when they mentioned that we live in a male dominated world. Anything that has to do with power is generally associated with a male figure. These instant thoughts that women are less likely to own a business, or are more likely to live in poverty need to come to an end.

In the book The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan brings attention to what she calls the feminine mystique, or “the problem that has no name”. Through the use of anecdotal narratives, her own personal experiences as a journalist, editor, mother, and the interviews of many women from different backgrounds in order to unveil the truth about the women of the 1950’s. The problem which sparked the second wave of feminism in the United States is one that focuses on the inequality between men and women and the undervaluing of women in both the social and private spheres. The women of the time gave up pursuing their passions, such as getting an education or careers in science or business in order to fit the image of the stereotypical stay-at-home mom whose main goal in life is to raise her children while providing a safe and comforting home for her husband. The Feminine Mystique, as she called it, was the idea of widespread unhappiness of women, despite the preconceived notion that women were happiest when they have a family. Throughout her work, she dives into many of the problems associated with the feminine mystique and builds a powerful concept of what would eventually be labeled feminism.

On April 8, 2014 Barack Obama issued two Executive Orders into legislation that were designed to help eliminate the wage differences between men and women. Although this is a good first step there is still a lot that must be accomplished in order for their to be equality on wages between males and females. Michael Kimmel’s book The Gendered Society discusses this issue within Chapter 9: Separate and Unequal. Coming at the issue from a very sociological perspective Kimmel argues that the wage gap is a “[…] major consequence of the combination of sex segregation and the persistence of archaic gender ideologies” (Kimmel 261). From my perspective, I agree with all of the points Kimmel is making and believe that this chapter provides an educational background on the inequality between men and women in the workplace. However, my qualm with Kimmel’s chapter is that he does not really discuss the patriarchal structure of capitalism as a whole. In this paper I will discuss the solid arguments The Gendered Society makes in Chapter 9 while also trying to relate them to my position that capitalism is sexist by nature.

Men, like women, do face a sort of inequality at times such as the example Richard Blackmon came up with when he speaks about clothing options. This can be attributed to the oppression men face at the start of their lives as young children. Male children are taught how to be macho. Moreover, female and male children from a very early age are clothed in gender specific clothes and given gender specific toys. Even the way male children interact with parents are very different from the way female children interact with their parents. Parents often neglect male offspring in the areas of communication and expression of feelings and emotions. This is because society deems male children as uninterested in deep communication and in expression of feelings and emotions. Sayings such as “boys don’t cry” illustrates the atrocities committed towards young boys throughout society. This cultural rearing of young boys stigmatizes men from going into such work forces as fashion, and interior design. Society tells such men that their sexuality will be altered if they go into high fashion. The entire population of men feel the effects of such bias stigma when they go to the store to buy an outfit. This bias is much like the biases towards women that Tannen brings up in her essay, “Marked Women.” However, this bias toward men has yet to affect a male’s yearly income or to affect the opportunity to become employed in leadership roles such as the President of the United States. Cultural bias towards any group is wrong and all groups should work together to delegitimize such practices. Martin Luther King Jr. best illustrated this idea of inequality and oppression. He announced, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King Jr.). Martin Luther King Jr. knew that any group could be oppressed through social norms and ideologies and he worked to dismantle such hurtful practices. Sadly, he

In my opinion, Kathleen Parker’s article “What’s love got to do with the bottom line?” is ineffectual. She discusses how women are becoming more masculine to blend into the workforce better, but then Sex in the City made women want to dress a little more stylish to work. Ms. Parker then adds that women are closer to equality now, more than ever before. You just can’t say things like that. The United States isn’t just based on male vs female anymore. Gender identity is the main topic of many discussions and the demand for equality is intense. She talks about fitting a woman into a male mold of success when we should be trying to fit into the mold for a happy, well-adjusted, less-stressed-out mold of success, so that we can be more productive

Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. Since the early ages women has been used to men being in charge. In the middle ages only men could inherit, and women were the property of a man from birth to death. Her farther owned her from birth to marriage, and even married her off to the most profitable man, who could ensure the farther the most power. As soon as the girl was married off, her husband owned her. If her husband wanted sex, she could not deny him taking it. If he wanted to take a mistress, she was expected to smile and be polite, but if she wanted to take a lover she could loose her head. If her husband did not want to have her around, he could send her to a nunnery. The woman had no influence. When China imposed the one child politic stating, that every couple should only have 1 child, girl infants began showing up dead in roadsides. The consequence of the gender regulation? China being mostly inhabited by men, causing a big lack of women. Now the era of the firstborn son is totally gone.

I am a woman living in a world where nearly everything is done by women and yet controlled by men. It doesn’t matter if that work is within the home or in the public workforce. Women are seen as the driving force behind much of the work that is being done. In nearly 40% of all American households, women are the primary breadwinners and provide the majority of the household’s income (Shaw and Lee, Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, pg. 470). But that hardly matters. Men are still seen in nearly all of the higher positions of control in this country. “Only 20 (or 4 percent) of Fortune 500 companies have women CEOs… or presidents and only 8 of these are actually in the top Fortune 100 (Shaw and Lee, Women’s Voices Feminist Visions, pg. 493). And how infuriating is that? But many men are blind to many of these inequalities, so let’s get real for a minute and throw down some knowledge.