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

Okay, by now you know that I’m way too tired from the weekend, and getting somewhat giddy and silly. But I really want to get some True Woman Twoughts blogged today –while the feelings and impressions of this past weekend’s Chattanooga conference are still fresh in my mind.

I don’t have the capacity in my present cotton-brained state to put together anything that’s particularly profound or earth-shattering, so here are some random, semi-unrelated (is that a new word too?) Twoughts to give you a taste of my True Woman experience:

• Getting bumped off the oversold flight on my way to my Girls Gone Wise release was ironic, since the passengers that didn’t get bumped were Spring-Breakers on their way to being Girls Gone Wild. Hmmm.
• 28 hours of travel for me, and 34 hours of travel for my bags. I bet my trip to Abu Dhabi at the end of the month will be quicker.
• All was forgotten when the presence of God palpably fell on the women at the pre-conference leader’s session. I can’t even remember what I said… I think it was something about how true womanhood pertains to revival…
• The Gettys rock! I SO miss my band days…
• Voddie Bauchan tells the amazing story of his 17-year-old Buddist mom who bore him out of wedlock and farmed him out to her brother to help Voddie learn to be a man. Tears stream down his cheeks as he encourages women to believe in the ideal, even if their own lives are broken and far from it.  I like him.
• One introductory point, 12 main points and 3 closing points for my talk on the Genesis of Gender. I break every homiletic speaking rule there is, trying to build an understanding of some basic, basic, foundational truths.
• Several Radio & TV interviews today. I wonder if they have a women’s version of that dark circle and puffiness under-eye-ugliness-eraser they’ve been advertising on TV for men.
• There are a dozen or so “True Men” praying in a back room non-stop behind the scenes. How good is that!!!
• I LOVED the light-bulb “aha” moment in the teen track when we talked about their cultural brainwashing at the hands of the Power Puff Girls et. al. The gasp and look on the one girl’s face was priceless!
• The Gettys rock! The unique sounds of violin & pipe make me want to dance a jig. Did I say how much I miss my band days?
• I can’t even begin to describe how fun it was to meet Hannah, Lindsay, Delta, Nicole, and the dozens and dozens of other new generation True Women. I wanted to pack you all up and take you home!
• My feet hurt from walkin and my jaw hurts from talkin, but I fall into bed one happy camper.
• The BUZZ intensifies with Rothchild, MacDonald, and Arthur. Lots of women are getting down to some serious business with God. Everywhere you look they are kneeling and praying. “Kicking holes in the darkness till it bleeds daylight” is the lyric that comes to mind.
• God is on the move. This is a momentum, movement-building moment. TW manifesto has 12,000 signatures and growing. We’re drawing a line in the sand that will cause the tide to turn.
• The panel discussed the daily challenge of living out true womanhood. I wonder what Dannah’s husband looked liked covered in meatloaf?
• Girls Gone Wise books sell out. They have to truck more in.
• Nancy DeMoss NAILED her talk on Deborah! RISE UP MOTHERS OF ISRAEL to reclaim spiritual ground for our families and future!
• If only a small percentage of the women in the room grab hold of the challenge and run with it, we will change the world!
• And it’s over just like that…. but it’s not over… it’s just beginning. And 2 more True Woman events to come in the fall. Amazing Amazing conference!
• I wonder how it’s possible for the airlines to lose my bags both going and coming… They keep getting lost and found– It’s definitely not John Calvin luggage. (That’s an inside joke for you theological types)

Enough twoughts.  Check out some pictures on the Girls Gone Wise Facebook page. For those of you who aren’t into twoghts, or tweets, or Facebook, here are just a few photos for you. AND… if you were at True Woman in Chattanooga, and have some of your own Twoughts to share, post them in the box below.

I’d love to hear from you!

© Mary A. Kassian

One of the displayed novelty items that caught my eye was a small box called “The Betty Boop Man-Training Kit.” It contained a small collectible Gumby-type Betty Boop doll, about 2 inches tall, displayed behind a heart-shaped window.  Betty Boop’s kiss print was prominent on the front of the box.

There’s nothing unusual about the idea that scantily clad Betty would use her seductive charm and kisses to “train” a man. The classic Betty Boop, and women throughout history, have used that tact. But the other message on the box was startling. With capital letters and an exclamation mark, Betty Boop’s modern Man-Training Kit encouraged women to “WHIP HIM GOOD!” — The innocent looking big-eyed Betty Boop doll sported a formidable black whip in her hand for that very purpose.

The back of the box advises:

“Is your man behaving more like “Man’s Best Friend”? Teach your old dog new tricks with the help of a sexy, sweet, and sassy classic–Betty Boop! This kit includes a one-of-a-kind bendable Betty Boop figurine with whip in hand and a 32-page Betty-style man-training manual.”

The training manual is filled with all sorts of exhortations to the reader about what Mr. Handsome ought to be doing for her – things like stroking her ego, respecting her opinions, knowing her shoe size, serving her breakfast in bed, respecting animals (?!), sending her flowers, massaging her feet, ensuring that he doesn’t smell bad, taking her out, learning to cook, keeping an umbrella handy, opening doors for her.  The final piece of advice is for girls to forever remember that “no man is entitled to your ‘Boop oop a doop!’ He has to earn it!”

There’s no doubt that this “Man-Training Kit” is meant to be cute and funny, but it contains a number of subtle, disturbing, underlying messages:

1. Men are like animals.
2. Women have a right to have men serve them.
3. It’s up to a woman to “train” her man to behave properly.
4. A woman can control her man through sexuality and/or aggression.
5. A woman  can use a whip (punishment) to force her man to do what she wants.
6. A woman should use sex as a reward and/or punishment.

What is particularly disturbing is that if roles were reversed so it were Bobby instead of Betty Boop- if  Bobby were encouraged to “WHIP HER GOOD!; if Bobby called Betty his “old dog”; if Bobby had an attitude of entitlement and forcibly demanded that Betty serve and obey him; if Bobby had demands for Betty’s behavior without any parameters for his own  – we’d decry this novelty item as demeaning, abusive, oppressive, and horribly offensive. Bookstores wouldn’t carry it.

Modern-day women are being encouraged to become the very thing that the feminists of the sixties condemned. Betty Boop’s Man-Training Kit demonstrates that popular culture is cultivating a generation of women who feel superior, and are demeaning, abusive, oppressive, and horribly offensive toward men.

© Mary A. Kassian

MOMENTum. . .  Leading in the Moment
By Mary Kassian
LifeWay Women’s Leadership Forum – November 13, 2009

1.      Moment, Momentum & Movements

a. Moment from Latin momentum = movement

i. A Moment is a brief period of time

ii. A Moment can be an important or significant occasion or time (Momentous)

b. Momentum from Latin momentum = movement

i. “Momentum” is the force that keeps something moving and developing in a certain direction over time.

c. Moment > Momentum > Movement

i. A movement is a large group of people who make a collective effort to achieve or reform something.

ii. Movements are created by people who respond to moments

iii. Like the men of Issachar who understood times and knew what the people of God ought to do (1 Chronicles 12:32)

2.      The Moment that Birthed a Movement

a. Betty Friedan’s Moment & the Women’s Movement

b. The Problem

i. Women don’t have the right to dictate what womanhood is all about Isaiah 29:16; 45:9

ii. When we lose sight of biblical manhood and womanhood, we lose sight of an image of the gospel – Ephesians 5

c. Markers of that Moment

i. The moment came on the heels of massive Social Change

ii. The past formula for Women’s Happiness hadn’t delivered

iii. Undercurrent of Discontent

3.      Now is the Moment for a Movement

a. Markers in the next generation

b. Markers that mirror the Moment that launched the secular Women’s movement

i. We are on the heels of massive Social Change – Internet

ii. The past formula for Women’s Happiness hasn’t delivered

iii. There’s an undercurrent of Discontent

 4.      Seize the Moment

 a. Regard Biblical Womanhood as a primary discipleship issue

b. Establish a Scriptural/Doctrinal foundation of knowledge

c. Actively teach the biblical principles of Womanhood

d. Teach principles -don’t try to squeeze women into a specific pattern of application

e. Intentionally target the next generation

f. Add your voice to the echo chamber

g. Don’t lose focus

 

Download a pdf:   Leading in the Moment Speaking Notes

Everyone else in the room looks at me, question marks popping up over their heads.

“Watch,” I say, gesturing toward the TV. “This is the turning point in their relationship. She gets drunk. He has to care for her. She has to stop being her pugnacious self and dial down her obnoxious-meter. She finally receives some protection and leadership from him, and his ability to see her in a tender way changes their relationship dynamic.”

Ten seconds later, the script plays out in the predicted manner. And I want to pull my hair out of my head! Why is this the required plot point in 99 out of a 100 romantic comedies?!My answer? Because Hollywood has no other device to help young women receive the care and leadership of men–other than to have them get falling-down drunk. Until that point, every female rom-com character is outspoken, in-your-face, quirky, and reeking of insecurities that are propped up by a brittle facade of self-confidence. She spars with her love interest because she has not been taught to make room for him in her life, to live inter-dependently, rather than merely independently. And that independence is a sham, anyway, as the drunk scene inevitably reveals. She needs the help of others, but she is too proud to admit it. And that’s when his care comes along. He tames her, so to speak, in her drunkennness. She stops fighting him and learns to trust him, but only after she has been humbled by being out of control herself.

Once the drunk scene is out of the way, the scriptwriters now have a reason for the male and female lead characters to work together, to trust each other, and to have some mutual care for each other. It is sad that women are being told over and over again that 1) this kind of trust and tenderness can only come about by losing self-control, and 2) that alcohol is a female problem (I never see the men getting drunk in these movies anymore).

My recommendation is that when you watch these movies, point out this contradiction to those watching with you–especially if they are young men and women. Our culture doesn’t have a framework for masculine benevolence anymore, which is sad. It seems the only way to showcase that quality is for someone to be so obviously helpless, as in a drunk scene, and then it’s okay for a man to exert protective qualities. As for young women, help them to understand that feminine tenderness and receptivity is a good thing, that men today are still looking for that quality, and that you don’t have to get drunk to find it.

© Carolyn McCulley