Why Men Fail.docx

1、Why Men FailWhy Men FailBy DAVID BROOKSYoure probably aware of the basic trends. The financial rewards to education have increased over the past few decades, but men failed to get the memo. In elementary and high school, male academic performance is lagging. Boys earn three-quarters of the Ds and Fs

2、. By college, men are clearly behind. Only 40 percent of bachelors degrees go to men, along with 40 percent of masters degrees. Thanks to their lower skills, men are dropping out of the labor force. In 1954, 96 percent of the American men between the ages of 25 and 54 worked. Today, that number is d

3、own to 80 percent. In Fridays jobs report, male labor force participation reached an all-time low. Millions of men are collecting disability. Even many of those who do have a job are doing poorly. According to Michael Greenstone of the Hamilton Project, annual earnings for median prime-age males hav

4、e dropped by 28 percent over the past 40 years. Men still dominate the tippy-top of the corporate ladder because many women take time off to raise children, but women lead or are gaining nearly everywhere else. Women in their 20s outearn men in their 20s. Twelve out of the 15 fastest-growing profess

5、ions are dominated by women. Over the years, many of us have embraced a certain theory to explain mens economic decline. It is that the information-age economy rewards traits that, for neurological and cultural reasons, women are more likely to possess. To succeed today, you have to be able to sit s

6、till and focus attention in school at an early age. You have to be emotionally sensitive and aware of context. You have to communicate smoothly. For genetic and cultural reasons, many men stink at these tasks. But, in her fascinating new book, “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin posits a different theory.

7、 It has to do with adaptability. Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. The

8、y speak the old language. They follow the old mores. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid. This theory has less to do with innate traits and more to do with social position. When theres big social change, the people who were on the top of the old order are bound to cling to the old

9、ways. The people who were on the bottom are bound to experience a burst of energy. Theyre going to explore their new surroundings more enthusiastically. Rosin reports from working-class Alabama. The women she meets are flooding into new jobs and new opportunities going back to college, pursuing new

10、careers. The men are waiting around for the jobs that left and are never coming back. They are strangely immune to new options. In the Auburn-Opelika region, the median female income is 140 percent of the median male income. Rosin also reports from college campuses where women are pioneering new soc

11、ial arrangements. The usual story is that men are exploiting the new campus hookup culture in order to get plenty of sex without romantic commitments. Rosin argues that, in fact, women support the hookup culture. It allows them to have sex and fun without any time-consuming distractions from their c

12、areers. Like new immigrants, women are desperate to rise, and they embrace social and sexual rules that give them the freedom to focus on their professional lives. Rosin is not saying that women are winners in a global gender war or that they are doing super simply because men are doing worse. Shes

13、just saying women are adapting to todays economy more flexibly and resiliently than men. Theres a lot of evidence to support her case. A study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that small businesses owned by women outperformed male-owned small businesses during the last recess

14、ion. In finance, women who switch firms are more likely to see their performance improve, whereas men are more likely to see theirs decline. Theres even evidence that women are better able to adjust to divorce. Today, more women than men see their incomes rise by 25 percent after a marital breakup.

15、Forty years ago, men and women adhered to certain ideologies, what it meant to be a man or a woman. Young women today, Rosin argues, are more like clean slates, having abandoned both feminist and prefeminist preconceptions. Men still adhere to the masculinity rules, which limits their vision and their movement. If shes right, then men will have to be less like Achilles, imposing their will on the world, and more like Odysseus, the crafty, many-sided sojourner. Theyll have to acknowledge that they are strangers in a strange land.