The End of Men?
by Dr. Albert Mohler
Is our postmodern, postindustrial society simply better suited to women than to men? Hanna Rosin makes the case for this claim in the current issue of The Atlantic, and her article demands close attention. Men, she argues, are simply falling behind women in almost every sector of cultural influence and economic power. This shift, she understands, is nothing less than unprecedented in the span of human history.
Rosin begins her article with the fact that sex-selection technologies in the West are now more often used to select a preference for girls than for boys, reversing the historical trend. Why? She explains: “Man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind. But for the first time in human history, that is changing—and with shocking speed. Cultural and economic changes always reinforce each other. And the global economy is evolving in a way that is eroding the historical preference for male children, worldwide.”
Rosin’s article is well documented and forceful in argument. The bottom line is the claim that the trend and trajectory of the global economy have for some time now been headed toward female skills and talents. At the most basic level, this means a shift from physical strength to intellectual energies and education. At the next level, it also means a shift from leadership models more associated with males toward the nurturing leadership more associated with women. In any event, the changes are colossal.
Nothing has brought this into clearer sight than the current global recession. In the United States, the recession has been dubbed a “he-cession,” due to the fact that three-quarters of the 8 million jobs lost were lost by men. Even more devastating to men, most of these jobs will not return, given the vast changes the recession has brought about. “The worst-hit industries were overwhelmingly male and deeply identified with macho: construction, manufacturing, high finance. Some of these jobs will come back,” Rosin predicts, “but the overall pattern of dislocation is neither temporary nor random.”
It’s not just the United States, either. In Iceland, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir (the first openly-lesbian head of state) ran her campaign for office with a pledge to end the “age of testosterone.”
But the picture in the United States is particularly striking. For the first time in the nation’s history, women now outnumber men in the workforce. The working class, “which has long defined our notions of masculinity,” Rosin argues, is “slowly turning into a matriarchy, with men increasingly absent from the home and women making all the decisions.”
Why? “The postindustrial economy is indifferent to men’s size and strength. The attributes that are most valuable today — social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus — are, at a minimum, not predominately male.”
Rosin actually makes two main points, and both demand attention. The first has to do with what is taking place in working class families. The matriarchy Rosin describes is now coming more fully into view. In many cases, it is husbands and fathers who are unemployed and wives and mothers who have paying jobs. This means a huge shift in male function, and many men just exit the family process or forfeit decision making. Rosin refers to these men as “casualties of the end of the manufacturing era.” Across the nation, older men are increasingly unemployed and younger men face little hope of a job in this sector — the virtual birthright of previous generations.
Of the fifteen job classifications marked for future growth, men dominate only two: janitorial services and computer engineering. The same pattern is now extending to managerial and professional roles, where women currently hold 51.4 percent of jobs. Why are women gaining and men falling behind? Rosin explains:
They make up 54 percent of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs. About a third of America’s physicians are now women, as are 45 percent of associates in law firms—and both those percentages are rising fast. A white-collar economy values raw intellectual horsepower, which men and women have in equal amounts. It also requires communication skills and social intelligence, areas in which women, according to many studies, have a slight edge. Perhaps most important—for better or worse—it increasingly requires formal education credentials, which women are more prone to acquire, particularly early in adulthood.
Beyond the numbers, Rosin reports that office environments and corporate cultures are adapting to women, as well, reshaped by the gender transformation of the last twenty-five years.
And yet, even after all this, Rosin makes her most powerful argument when she looks, not at the current workforce, but at what is happening on America’s college and university campuses. There, she explains, “we can see with absolute clarity that in the coming decades the middle class will be dominated by women.”
She continues:
We’ve all heard about the collegiate gender gap. But the implications of that gap have not yet been fully digested. Women now earn 60 percent of master’s degrees, about half of all law and medical degrees, and 42 percent of all M.B.A.s. Most important, women earn almost 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees—the minimum requirement, in most cases, for an affluent life. In a stark reversal since the 1970s, men are now more likely than women to hold only a high-school diploma. “One would think that if men were acting in a rational way, they would be getting the education they need to get along out there,” says Tom Mortenson, a senior scholar at the Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. “But they are just failing to adapt.”
While many theories to explain this pattern have been offered, no one can argue with the numbers. Boys are clearly falling behind girls in both educational achievement and aspiration. The long-term consequences of this shift are momentous and virtually impossible to reverse in a single generation. This pattern has vast implications for marital prospects, since women express a strong preference to marry a man of equal or greater educational and professional potential. The collapse of the marriage culture within the working class, Rosin argues, is due to the fact that women are in control and have set expectations “too high for the men around them to meet.”
Hanna Rosin’s article is not the first salvo of information on these troubling trends, but the fact that The Atlantic chose her essay as a cover story is itself evidence of how this phenomenon is taking hold of attention, even among the elites.
For Christians, the importance of this article is even greater. God intended for men to have a role as workers, reflecting God’s own image in their vocation. The most important issue here is not the gains made by women, but the displacement of men. This has undeniable consequences for these men and for everyone who loves and depends on them.
The failure of boys to strive for educational attainment is a sign of looming disaster. Almost anyone who works with youth and young adults will tell you that, as a rule, boys are simply not growing up as fast as girls. This means that their transition to manhood is stunted, delayed, and often incomplete. Meanwhile, the women are moving on.
What does it mean for large sectors of our society to become virtual matriarchies? How do we prepare the church to deal with such a world while maintaining biblical models of manhood and womanhood?
The elites are awakening to the fact that these vast changes point to a very different future. Christians had better know that matters far more important than economics are at stake. These trends represent nothing less than a collapse of male responsibility, leadership, and expectations. The real issue here is not the end of men, but the disappearance of manhood.
© Dr. Albert Mohler
www.albertmohler.com
Category: Blog, Current Issues, Male and Female Roles
This is VERY sobering stuff. Definitely something we need to fight against.
Yes, VERY sobering stuff. Makes me wonder what we can be doing to encourage boys and young men to embrace their natural leadership calling?
Why are we equating “manhood” with “employment” — since when does “having a job” mean you’re a man? Are you promoting the Prosperity Gospel?!
Are men now to find their identity in their “jobs” rather than solely in Christ and His finished work on the cross? The Word of GOD *of course* addresses the need for husbands/fathers seek to provide for their families, but making ends meet is no “requirement” for the Christian—in fact Jesus “accosted” the rich and spent much of his time with the poor and rejected. Why isn’t Dr. Mohler and Mary Kassian more concerned with the church’s regard for those who are in difficult circumstances: that includes orphans, widows, and the UNEMPLOYED.
Did you know that in much of the *rest of the world outside of our American middle class bubble* MEN are *perpetually* unemployed? Does this mean God thinks of them less?! Does this mean they won’t ever have the opportunity to be “Biblical men?”
*** Most men in this country are not unemployed right now because there’s some crazy “feminist conspiracy” — it’s because the only jobs available right now in this economy are the *LOWER-PAYING* secretary/nurse ones that normally GO to women!!! ***
I usually appreciate Dr. Mohler’s insight into many of our culture’s challenges, but I am gravely dissappointed that he too has fallen into the “blame the women” paranoia-reactionary-fear-tactic conspiracy-theorizing a lot of Reformed Christian leaders resort to everytime they need an excuse to explain away why their version of Evangelicalism is growing increasingly irrelevant and sapped of any power…All the while, the church OUTSIDE of the upper middle-class, complementarian l bubble, Christianity is THRIVING in places such as Latin America + Asia and in immigrant communities all over the U.S.
But these people do not count as the “church.”
Why is it that complementarians never highlight the plight of homeless men or minority men–who much of the American church certainly did not seem very interested in granting full “manhood” to for centuries…NOPE, manhood can only come once you can AFFORD the “Biblical manhood” lifestyle — the house, the minivan, the trophy homemaker, and the trophy 4.5 children. (preferably homeschooled)
Is a man “in sin” if the wife has decided to take on employment to help make ends meet as he seeks for new employment? What if the LORD is using this period in the man’s life to allow him more time to read His Bible and spend time with His children? Nope to some: the man is now a stay-at-home dad, and therefore in sin, and the wife is a “feminazi” who needs to repent of her employment.
If these pastors are so concerned about unemployed men, why don’t they spend some of the money they make from their books, speaking tours, and mega-conferences and help the congregants in need at their churches? Why doesn’t the CHURCH do things like help people pay for their health insurance if they cant’ afford it? Why doesn’t the CHURCH help families with unemployed parents in need? And we wonder why, in the country with the richest Christians in the world, people feel they have nowhere else to turn except the government when they are in need of help.
I say to those “worried” men: STOP whining and blaming, and start LEADING and *SERVING* those families in need who could use your help! Stop emulating Mr. Cleaver and start emulating JESUS CHRIST.
Some clarifications on the above post I made:
* The Word of GOD addresses the need for husbands/fathers seek to provide, but this is in no way a call to eschew and belittle those who can’t because of circumstances outside their control. fact, Jesus “accosted” the rich and spent much of his time with the poor, sick, and unemployed. –> So I am not saying Jesus rewards idleness or laziness, I am saying Jesus does not stop loving you or think you are “less of a man” just because you were fired from work. And he will not curse a woman, who out of the interests of her home, enters the workforce while her husband may be seeking employment.
For all we know, the LORD is allowing seasons of unemployment in a man’s life, so he can have time to read the Bible and spend more time with his kids. Perhaps the LORD is tired of American men idolizing their careers? What if he wants men in our country to repent of their selfish ambition and vain conceit?
* When I talk about Reformed Christian leaders being bitter about their growing irrelevance in our ever-changing society–I don’t mean “theological” irrelevance–i mean CULTURAL irrelevance, so they vent out their frustrations by “blaming the women,”rather than humbly acknowledging where they may have failed or been wrong. * Notice how even on this site, there are viritually no entries critical of men and their failings–only villainizing of “modern women.”
There is nothing new about this: Adam blamed Eve for the fall, yet all throughout the Bible, it’s constantly referred to as “The Fall of Adam.” (But of course BOTH are given the blame.)
Too much of the “complementarian” movement is based on cultural, middle class notions of what “Christianity” should look like, and has very little bearing on reality for those who do not fit in the same ethnic/socio-economic mold…please beware of thinking that the only “real Christians” are part of the demographic the big-dog preachers such as Mohler represent. In many OTHER segments of the American population outside of the “suburbs” true Bible-believing and Christ-centered churches are *thriving.*
Don’t ever let any unattainable legalistic standards or extrabiblical definitions of womanhood get in the way of the mandate to love GOD and love your neighbor. For that is the whole Law.
* These Christian leaders are too busy blogging and casting judgment on working women and female deacons, rather than “feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, inviting the strangers, comforting the sick, and visiting prisoners.”
* Lastly, do not let their fearmongering of “female invasions” make you think you “need” these bloggers or preachers to dictate every last detail of your life…just trust the Word of God, trust Jesus, and allow the Holy Spirit to lead you–and surround yourself with Christians who put the Gospel first.
Radiance, I can empathize with your concerns. The world is still fallen and people (even Christians) still sin and fail us every day in every way — both men and women. When I read your posts, all I could think about is how true it is that with all of our failings even we as Christians are in further need of sanctification.
And let’s remember that God is truly our Father, but only through the blood of Jesus Christ.
He is the Father of ‘the fatherless’ for all us who have had earthly fathers and earthly male authorities who have grieviously failed us and sinned against us. I can agree that sometimes the complimentarian approach may miss certain gospel elements that ought to be considered or included in the communication process. But, I believe the scriptures taken wholisticallly are complementarian.
Dr. Mohler is a godly man whose ministry has helped to exhort many men to lbe obedient in their God-ordained roles and has been a tremendous teacher in my life. Even though he too is still an imperfect man in the process of being sanctified, we should think the best of him (and other Christians in general).
I think he is dead on in this post, but because of our culture’s strongholds on the gender issue, most people, even many Christians, won’t completely “get it.” In fact, I’m just now starting to “get it.”
I have such respect for Al Mohler, that’s why I was so disappointed in his article! I think it’s important to point out that there is not a single Biblical reference in his article other than maybe the idea that men are called to work, but it’s mixed in with a materialistic assumption that a man’s worth or value comes from his title or vocation, rather than solely on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross…His article is based primarily on cultural paranoia and a fallen “man versus woman” “you win, we lose” mentality which takes us right back to the cursed Eden of Genesis 3, and fails to view the world through the redemptive lenses of Jesus Christ and to acknowledge the Sovereignty of God behind all the shifting tides of history.
I believe GOD has great and deep purposes for all the changes being experienced by our society and all over the world. It’s easy for us Americans Christians who have no history of being marginalized to grasp the momentousness of having our first black President for example.
It’s easy for us 21st Century *American* women to be unaware of the enormous plights of our sisters around the world, who endure rape, sexual trafficking, and other major forms of repression and abuse on a daily basis.
We take for granted the rights we have, whether they be to vote, or to get a college education. Many of these rights were helped won by women we may not agree with theologically, religiously, or spiritually…but that goes for slavery and segregation as well. Christians as well as non-Christians fought injustice (nonviolently) together. That’s what’s known as “the common grace” of GOD.
Historically, the unbelieving world has often shamed the church by reflecting Christ even better than we should have: by hungering and thirsting for righteousness, by truly laying down their lives for the least among us. All too often the church in America fails to address just how deep the church’s sins have truly run historically whether it be regard to justifying slavery or staying silent about civil rights, or buying into the materialistic consumerist culture the hippies wisely questioned and eschewed.
If people want to talk about instances where “men end,” I encourage everybody to study the consequences of the Civil War. The real “ends of men” happen in eras when all the men go off to fight wars and either end up dead or disabled, leaving millions of women virtually widowed and their children fatherless, and families to fend for themselves. Understanding some of these historical realities will help us better comprehend some of the sentiments which led to the suffragist movement as well and some of the new responsibilities women had to take on without their husbands present.
Ironically, speaking of war, some in our culture continue to glamorize war in true pagan fashion, forgetting that our Lord and Savior would have never partaken in such a thing.
(Disclaimer: I am not a pacifist. I am just pointing out how our culture’s perceptions of attaining and defining “manhood” are not necessarily Christ-based, and that we have faced TRUE shortages of “men” much moreso in the past than we do now and that Christ’s primary call upon men was not to be “employed”—but to live and love like Him.)
I believe this article is a true indication of where things are at. We cannot ignore the growing trend to feminize the males in our culture.
Radiance I understand your anger and the points you have made. I have argued those same points many times, about the poor, the 3rd world nations, the plight of those who are not white etc.
I was a feminist for many years, even as a Christian. I firmly believed men were wrong in thinking that women could not be pastors etc. I believed anything a man could do a woman could do better.
The point is just because there are injustices around the world does not mean we can ignore what is happening at home. Many things happen in this world that are because of sin. Many reactions are reactions to blatant sin. Example would be the beginnings of the feminist movement… the fight for women to have the right to vote, own their own property, to be treated as a person instead of property. Many ‘Christian’ men were wrong in the way they treated women. The same is true of slavery.
But what is going on today in America cannot be ignored either. There is a definite force behind the feminist movement to control and get rid of men out of areas of authority and to act more feminine. I know I was there!
Yes some women do need to work. I don’t believe Dr. Mohler was saying they didn’t. Yes there are many single mom’s or others living below the poverty line that do have to work. But sometimes in our affluent culture we think we need a double income when in actuality we don’t, we just want the affluent lifestyle. ( I am married and am talking as one who does live below the poverty line)
You are upset with the others casting judgement, but you are doing the same. We need to remember what our Lord Jesus said about love. He also said the world would hate us. He was not kidding! To think the world (this present system) is not against the family, men in authority, men loving and laying down their lives for their wives and families, women submitting to their husbands is foolishness. Remember there is an enemy we are called to war against, and it is not other Christians. There is a spiritual battle behind all of this.
And as for the Civil and other wars, yes war does leave many homes fatherless. But I bet if you did a study you would find more fatherless homes in America today than there has ever been in the whole history of the nation! The world encourages men to opt out. It is constantly cutting men down, making them look stupid etc. Just watch the comercials on TV , not even talking about the shows!!! The enemy of our souls has an agenda!
I think the men of the New Testament age would be looked down upon because of their masculinity!
Ps
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I am a pacifist, and I believe Jesus was…. but that is another topic