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The cover story of the July/August issue of The Atlantic is worth a read for any of you who are interested in learning more about how the rise of the female worker and consumer actually came about. Hanna Rosin does an excellent job of comprehensively covering the subject in a way that, to this point, no other reporter has been able to do.
I strongly encourage you to read the lengthy article (which you can do online), especially if you have daughters that will someday be entering the workforce. But I thought I’d share some of statistics from the article that back up Ms. Rosin’s explanation of “how women got control – of everything.”
- In fertilization clinics, reports for “sperm selection to choose the sex of a child” (most still in clinical trials), runs 75% girls, 25% boys.
- A 2006 study measured the economic and political power of women in 162 countries. In almost all cases, the greater the power of women, the greater the country’s economic success.
- In our current Great Recession, 75% of the 8 million jobs lost were those belonging to men.
- For every two men who receive a B.A. this year, three women will do the same.
- Of the 15 job categories projected to grow the most in the next decade, all but two are dominated by women.
Statistics like these, combined with the socio-economic and cultural shifts that trend toward a matriarchal society, mean that just about every tradition – from fatherhood to breadwinner to bill payer – is changing in a big way.
Just something to think about over your morning coffee… and something to start preparing for in planning ahead for the future of your business.
Michele Miller is a writer, speaker, and consultant on ways to capture the heart of the female customer. The co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth, she consults with businesses of all sizes across North America
Oh sure. A woman wrote it.
Tend to agree, though. But, as a man, if you give a woman recognition and respect, it’s all good.
After reading this post and the associated Atlantic article, I couldn’t help feeling that the article is more about how boys and young men are failing than about women winning.
And a lot of that has to do with how our schools are failing boys. Why are boys failing? Largely because they’re disengaged from education. And why are they disengaged? Mostly as a form of psychic self-protection against the “War on Boys” written about so presciently by Christina Hoff Sommers.
Which isn’t to say that this is the total explanation for the entire cultural shift we’re witnessing – far from it. But it is a part of it, and an important part at that.
For anyone who hasn’t heard of Chstina Hoff Sommers book, The War Against Boys, this older Atlantic article from April of 2000 nicely summarizes it:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/05/the-war-against-boys/4659/
Problem is as women no matter how “empowered” we become in the work force too many of us are still the primary care givers and home makers. I have never heard a man say “I am tired, how can I manage home and a job?” As women we have been taught by our mothers (don’t we always blame the mother haha) that a stable and structured home must be maintained even with a full time job. Perhaps the solution would be for more men to balance family and work so that instead of role reversal, we achieved role equalization in the home and out of it. (And yes my own family runs with stereotypical responsibilities, but we are working on blending the roles although old habits do die hard). Now after saying all that, I have two sons I agree that society no longer teaches with a program that supports how the male mind learns and if a boy cannot learn in a female dominated classroom lead by a female teacher, he is either deemed a problem child or is lost through the cracks. Bottom line is that balance is what is needed not blaming and that is everyones responsibility.
It is amazing, that when media, writers, speaker, or anyone talks about this subjet, men always feel attacked! It is important to write, talk, and tell the world about women as a part of the producing society!
In Sweden we have at least a law that makes both father and mothers to be at home with the kids when they are small! In our homes we have maybe came a bit further than other countries. But in the producing society we still have work to do!
Hopefully the generation that has grown up with having both mother and father sharing the house-hold work, will be different when it comes to entering the workforce!