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ABOUT WOMEN By
Christine Strobel
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Boys, you're on the verge of breeding yourselves into irrelevancy.
Or so says The New York Times.
Over the past several weeks, the newspaper has been reporting on "The New Gender Divide," examining growing social and educational differences between men and women.
And it looks bad for the guys.
The series was triggered by this: For the first time in its history, Harvard University has more girls than boys in its freshman class this fall. Not a lot more, but more.
There's nothing new about this trend. At UH, for example, enrollment has been about 44 percent male, 56 percent female, dating back to 2001. Most colleges nationwide have been reporting majority female enrollments for years. So the Ivy League is only catching up with the rest of us, it seems.
The Times also looked at the work force. There are a lot fewer men in it, as a percentage of the population. About 13 percent of men ages 30 to 55 aren't working today, compared with 5 percent in the late '60s. That's some 4 million more men not working, adjusting for the employment rate — and that doesn't include men in prison.
Of course, you can skew statistics a million ways. But the Times threw in many compelling anecdotes and examples to illustrate the issue. Here are some:
Is this the evolution of the New Man? And is he a nose-picking slacker?
I wasn't ready to jump on the media-alarmist bandwagon right away. So I started asking male friends about this New Man — one who gets a degree, maybe, one who works, maybe, one who is financial dependent on his parents or a woman.
Universally, they're cool with it. Not about their parents, necessarily, but definitely with women.
They said if a woman can earn enough to keep a man in a good lifestyle, and allow him to stay home and raise the kids, they're all for it. They're ready to kick it at home.
Which I guess is fine. But it's not exactly manly.
Then again, maybe I'm being too old-school.
If it's no longer considered unwomanly to be career-oriented — right? — then it shouldn't be unmanly for a guy to keep house and raise kids. Fair is fair.
So ... I will try to get used to the New Man.
Except for that part about slacking off on education. No excuse for that.
C'mon, guys, you can do it. Put down the Xbox controller and slowly back away.
Reach Christine Strobel at cstrobel@honoluluadvertiser.com.
