I don't even have time to comment on this, but I wanted to save it here. I should probably just "pin" it for later, but that would mess up my system. If women needed their own revolution to get them equality, it sounds like men need a revolution to give them some hope (and I know my punctuation is wrong!)
From "Growing Pains: Rate of young men struggling in careers alarmingly higher than young women" in the Deseret News:
1. "Nearly 40 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are unemployed or out of the
workforce, according to the Pew Research Center. More than a third rely
on their parents to help make ends meet and, even among those who have
jobs. . . ."
2. "Young men are less educated, more likely to be unemployed and more
likely to live at home with their parents than their female peers. . . The achievement gap between young women and men has grown so wide that
experts worry it may be contributing to the rising age of marriage and
an increase in the number of single-parent homes."
3. During the recession, men lost twice as many jobs as women.
4. While the share of women living with their parents has remained a fairly
steady 10 percent since 2007, the share of men living at home has
increased from 14.2 percent to 18.6 percent.
5. ". . . the economy is shifting in a more
female-friendly direction. . . . The
manufacturing economy, which played to men's strengths, is on its way
out. Today's economy is becoming increasingly knowledge-based and
emphasizes softer skills such as communication and data analysis —
things men can do, but that come easier to women. The emphasis on female-friendly skills is mirrored in schools . . . where as early as elementary school teachers now encourage
learning strategies that girls excel at, like collaboration, and
discourage those that come naturally to boys, like competition. As a
result of what he calls "biased" teaching methods, by the time they
graduate high school, men are already behind. At a university level,
just 38 percent of men ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college or
graduate programs in 2010, compared to 44 percent of women, according to
the Pew Research Center. Women are more likely to graduate, too.
Thirty-six percent of women ages 25 to 29 had a bachelor's degrees,
while just 28 percent of men obtained the milestone."
6. "Overall, women still earn only about 80 percent of men's wages, but among young adults, women out-earn men. . . . . . . the median full-time salaries of young women are 8 percent higher than
those of their male peers. In some cities, young women bring in as much
as 20 percent more. Experts attribute the disparity to the growing gap
in educational achievement."
7. "When I started out, the boys would have big ambitions and the girls
would have big ambitions," he said. "Slowly, year after year, young
women finishing college have remained optimistic about the future, but
young men have completely changed. If they are superstars and ... went
to Harvard, they are doing OK. But if they are normal, went to a
middling university or maybe even dropped out, these men are depressed
and angry. They feel like the cards are stacked against them."
8. Accelerated by the recession, men's marriage rates dropped sharply over the past decade.
9. If society has made women into "sex objects," Farrell argues it has made men into "success objects."
10. As women power ahead, these expectations are wearing on men, Farrell
said. Modern women have gained choices over the years. They can take a
job. They can stay at home with their children. They can do both. Men,
though, have only the option to work full time, work full time or work
full time.
11. "Men are not valued if they aren't successful," Farrell said. "And in
today's world, they are far less likely to be successful. Period. In
comparison to women, they are in even worse shape."
12. Some put off marriage because they feel like they must first achieve
financial stability, he says. Easy access to pornography is a factor,
too, because it makes it easy for men to fulfill sexual needs. . . .
13. Because young adults are delaying marriage, a new decade of life has emerged. . . ."pre-adulthood." . . . "You find a new phenomenon of what I call the child man," . . . He is hanging around, playing video games with his friends much like he was in college." . . . As women have gained success, there's been increasing talk about "Why do
I need a man?" says Hymowitz. In the future, she predicts more women,
unable to find a man they see as their equal, will "go it alone" as
single mothers.
14. "This isn't just an individual problem; this is a societal problem,"
Hymowitz says. "It isn't a purely economical problem; it is contributing
to the breakdown of the family."
Ouch.
