It’s a Woman’s World
Tens of millions of men have marred life chances because schools are bad at educating boys, because they are not enmeshed in the long-term relationships that instill good habits and because insecure men do stupid and self-destructive things.
Over the past 40 years, women’s wages have risen sharply but, as Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney of the Hamilton Project point out, median incomes of men have dropped 28 percent and male labor force participation rates are down 16 percent. Next time somebody talks to you about wage stagnation, have them break it down by sex. It’s not only globalization and technological change causing this stagnation. It’s the deterioration of the moral and social landscape, especially for men.
Full op-ed by David Brooks in The New York Times.
Wow! That’s sort of laying it all out there. Are we supposed to believe men are falling behind because their father doesn’t love them and their mother dresses them funny? Then how come women are advancing? Isn’t the presence of an in-home father figure supposed to encourage young girls to strive for the future; and marry men who are as responsible as their father?
I don’t know what the answer is. But being coddled with the attitude that boys will grow up some day explains some of their irresponsible behavior. Heaping praise on teenage boys who excel at sports – despite poor academic performance probably also does boys more harm than good.
Something that makes this analysis seem flawed is the fact that boys possibly have an advantage over women. Even an overgrown boy can get with the program and better himself and lead a normal life (assuming he has not been convicted of a crime). A uneducated, unskilled woman, who has out-of-wedlock children, hurts her chances of ever getting out of poverty immensely.
Sad to see confirmation that the double standards still exist.
This is very worrisome.
How do you relate this to the prevailing gender-wage gap? Women are still earning only 80 percent of their male counterparts.
cannot totally agree with you, “Tens of millions of men have marred life chances because schools are bad at educating boys, because they are not enmeshed in the long-term relationships that instill good habits and because insecure men do stupid and self-destructive things.”??? so you are trying to say that men are lagging behind through no fault of their own, but the education system and the bad parenting? isn’t this a bit illogical?
cheers.