Masculinity In Hanna Rosin's The End Of Men
To deny the progress made by women in terms of success in the workplace is absolutely indisputable; however to go as far as saying this success means the “end of men” is simply preposterous. Perhaps the generalization of the typical man being the lumberjack, captain of the football team, powerful iron worker type is fading away, but that hardly means that men are moving aside to let women take away their success. In Hanna Rosin 's article “The End of Men”, Rosin indicates that there is a certain masculinity-crisis. Rosin argues that women are now dominating men in schooling, the workplace and the home. The world is now more suited towards the characteristics of women and they are taking full advantage of it, she argues. Rosin notes that
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because of a declining number of jobs in industries such as construction, manufacturing and finance, women have an advantage over men because they have specialized in jobs such as “nursing, home health assistance, child care, food preparation”23.
Rosin uses many stats and a few expert claims in order to persuade the idea that society is against men in general and is now more fitting to women. To say that Rosin does not make compelling arguments is simply not true, however it seems that she has made a crucial mistake in the sense that she has labelled men with a narrow image of what masculinity is and that all men fall into this category. Rosin seems to paint a picture that all men want to be thought of as brawny, tough, risk-takers and even stubborn. The way this article is structured gives an ill impression that this is the way men are and they are not willing to change or adapt. Rosin uses generalizations not only for men, but for women as well; her analysis of gender roles in history, economics, and education seems quite simply, narrow. Through her use of generalizations, she creates an distorted image of the American work place and its future based on misleading statistics. The foundation of Rosin 's picture of a female dominated future workplace is based on how she views the past and the emergence of …show more content…
women.
Rosin writes that “man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind”8, which is not entirely true as many successful societies throughout history have been lead by women. To say that men have been “dominant” hardly seems to be the truth other than perhaps the days of cavemen clubbing their women and dragging them into caves. The notion of treating women well and respecting women is essential in most cultures such as Muslims, in such, women are seen as sacred. Rosin then goes on to note the advancements made in South Korea from the 1970 's to modern times. According to her statistics, the preference for having a daughter has grown greatly since 1985 when half of the women in South Korea said that they “must have a son”8. She then continues to note that in 2003 the number who claimed to need to have a son had fallen to just over 15 percent. To start off, the rate of half who figured they must have son is not too great considering this means that the other half did not feel as though they had to have a son. What can also be derived from this statistic is that the wording makes a significant impact to the relevance. When these women say they felt the “need” to have a son, it is important to question whether this statistic includes women who did not feel quite as strongly and if the other half of those polled were women who felt a need to have a daughter or if that included the aforementioned women who did not feel quite as strongly but still wanted to have a son. More information could be used to paint a picture of how important this statistic is to the advancement of the desire for more women in society. Perhaps also relevant to this statistic is the South Koreans larger neighbour to the west in China. China is well know as a country that has advanced at a very fast rate in the 20th century and also well renowned as a culture that prefers the birth of men to women with their One Child Policy in which a lot of times female babies are put up for adoption in favour of having a male child instead. The reason this hold importance to Rosin 's point about South Korea being a compelling argument to her cause is that China represents a larger demographic in world population, are a larger factor in world economics and share many similar cultural aspects as all of Korea was a part of China up until Japanese invasion in the 1930 's. Rosin does note that China is beginning to move in a similar direction, however as long as their One Child Policy exists and the men continue to earn more money than women, the preference to keep a male child will continue to remain as the economic factor of peoples lives continues to largely influence their decisions.
Rosin boldly states that “thinking and communicating have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina as the keys to economic success”9 implying that women are beginning to become more successful than men in economics because they are more suited to thinking and communicating where as men are more suited for physical strength and stamina which is simply ignorant.
To generalize all men under this notion of a savage who can only use brute strength is obviously unfair as each man is different and to categorize them as such is simply not true as many of the greatest thinkers and communicates in history and society are men. Rosin then goes on to make a reference to the Darwinism theory in regards to the advancing societies who use thinking and communicating to find success. This point is quite peculiar as if she believes that societies are adapting to the change of times, yet men are not capable of adapting to such. If employment desires will begin to change as drastically as Rosin makes it seem, men will adapt and learn. The most import factor in American economic success is not a matter of gender, but rather a matter of class and race. Rarely do people come from nothing to find themselves great wealth as social class plays an important role in determining a persons role in society. Most of the wealthiest people in the world are very well educated because they were able to afford higher levels of education because of their social class. Another important factor to consider is
that of race. Whether or not we want to believe it, racism is a large part of our world and because of such we see the impact of discrimination in the success of many people. Rosin goes on to note the large historical economic impact that was the Great Depression and says that the biggest lost jobs were in “construction, manufacturing, high finance”12. Rosin is seemingly indicating that these jobs are all expendable. No matter the time period these type of jobs in construction and manufacturing will always exist as society is constantly expanding meaning that new things will need to be built and new goods will need to be produced. Although Rosin is also noting that these jobs are male dominated with little education requirements which she suggests is a reason that women are finding more success than men.
At the very begging of the article, Rosin states that “for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same”. The fact that more women are attending post secondary schools and graduating from them than men is undisputable. However, it is worth noting that men are outnumbered in North America by women and that because jobs in construction and manufacturing are constantly growing due to an expanding society, that men may not see a reason to go to post secondary schooling to make a sufficient amount of money. Rosin continues by noting the statistics around degrees and post secondary education in which women also are dominating. An interesting statistic she notes is that “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.”37. Interesting that despite the fact that more women are attening post secondary schools, that still half of law and medical degrees are still earned by men and that more than half of all M.B.A.s. are earned by men. These fields are commonly known as quite versatile and well earning. The entire purpose of the article is to give an impression that men are in trouble and yet here we see a very important statistic in which it is clear that men appear to be dominating despite lower enrolment rates. To downplay the success and advancement of women in the past century is preposterous and should defiantly not be ignored, however to say men are at risk is an overstatement.
Women have worked hard to dispose of all past gender stereotypes and because of such, they have managed to make strides in controlling the economy. The types of jobs women are now able to do, would seem like mere fantasies as little as 50 years ago. Women may be earning higher schooling degrees, controlling majority of the workforce and becoming the desired sex in certain cultures; but that does not necessarily mean that men are in trouble by means of loosing dominance. The fact is that it should not matter which gender dominates which statistics as long as people of all races and genders are being treated equally and working towards a better future for their society. Men will continue forward to do whatever it takes to survive and adapt as a natural incline. To say that they are in danger because of a few declining numbers is absurd. Rosin makes many key points in her argument, but seems to be on the fence about what she really thinks of men. At times she seems to label men as brutes who know only how to make a living using their physical traits, and then seems to suggest that men now are more willing to take a back seat to the success of women as omega males. Overall her notion of “the end of men” seems simply incorrect.
Works Cited
-Rosin, Hanna. “The End of Men.”
because of a declining number of jobs in industries such as construction, manufacturing and finance, women have an advantage over men because they have specialized in jobs such as “nursing, home health assistance, child care, food preparation”23.
Rosin uses many stats and a few expert claims in order to persuade the idea that society is against men in general and is now more fitting to women. To say that Rosin does not make compelling arguments is simply not true, however it seems that she has made a crucial mistake in the sense that she has labelled men with a narrow image of what masculinity is and that all men fall into this category. Rosin seems to paint a picture that all men want to be thought of as brawny, tough, risk-takers and even stubborn. The way this article is structured gives an ill impression that this is the way men are and they are not willing to change or adapt. Rosin uses generalizations not only for men, but for women as well; her analysis of gender roles in history, economics, and education seems quite simply, narrow. Through her use of generalizations, she creates an distorted image of the American work place and its future based on misleading statistics. The foundation of Rosin 's picture of a female dominated future workplace is based on how she views the past and the emergence of …show more content…
women.
Rosin writes that “man has been the dominant sex since, well, the dawn of mankind”8, which is not entirely true as many successful societies throughout history have been lead by women. To say that men have been “dominant” hardly seems to be the truth other than perhaps the days of cavemen clubbing their women and dragging them into caves. The notion of treating women well and respecting women is essential in most cultures such as Muslims, in such, women are seen as sacred. Rosin then goes on to note the advancements made in South Korea from the 1970 's to modern times. According to her statistics, the preference for having a daughter has grown greatly since 1985 when half of the women in South Korea said that they “must have a son”8. She then continues to note that in 2003 the number who claimed to need to have a son had fallen to just over 15 percent. To start off, the rate of half who figured they must have son is not too great considering this means that the other half did not feel as though they had to have a son. What can also be derived from this statistic is that the wording makes a significant impact to the relevance. When these women say they felt the “need” to have a son, it is important to question whether this statistic includes women who did not feel quite as strongly and if the other half of those polled were women who felt a need to have a daughter or if that included the aforementioned women who did not feel quite as strongly but still wanted to have a son. More information could be used to paint a picture of how important this statistic is to the advancement of the desire for more women in society. Perhaps also relevant to this statistic is the South Koreans larger neighbour to the west in China. China is well know as a country that has advanced at a very fast rate in the 20th century and also well renowned as a culture that prefers the birth of men to women with their One Child Policy in which a lot of times female babies are put up for adoption in favour of having a male child instead. The reason this hold importance to Rosin 's point about South Korea being a compelling argument to her cause is that China represents a larger demographic in world population, are a larger factor in world economics and share many similar cultural aspects as all of Korea was a part of China up until Japanese invasion in the 1930 's. Rosin does note that China is beginning to move in a similar direction, however as long as their One Child Policy exists and the men continue to earn more money than women, the preference to keep a male child will continue to remain as the economic factor of peoples lives continues to largely influence their decisions.
Rosin boldly states that “thinking and communicating have come to eclipse physical strength and stamina as the keys to economic success”9 implying that women are beginning to become more successful than men in economics because they are more suited to thinking and communicating where as men are more suited for physical strength and stamina which is simply ignorant.
To generalize all men under this notion of a savage who can only use brute strength is obviously unfair as each man is different and to categorize them as such is simply not true as many of the greatest thinkers and communicates in history and society are men. Rosin then goes on to make a reference to the Darwinism theory in regards to the advancing societies who use thinking and communicating to find success. This point is quite peculiar as if she believes that societies are adapting to the change of times, yet men are not capable of adapting to such. If employment desires will begin to change as drastically as Rosin makes it seem, men will adapt and learn. The most import factor in American economic success is not a matter of gender, but rather a matter of class and race. Rarely do people come from nothing to find themselves great wealth as social class plays an important role in determining a persons role in society. Most of the wealthiest people in the world are very well educated because they were able to afford higher levels of education because of their social class. Another important factor to consider is
that of race. Whether or not we want to believe it, racism is a large part of our world and because of such we see the impact of discrimination in the success of many people. Rosin goes on to note the large historical economic impact that was the Great Depression and says that the biggest lost jobs were in “construction, manufacturing, high finance”12. Rosin is seemingly indicating that these jobs are all expendable. No matter the time period these type of jobs in construction and manufacturing will always exist as society is constantly expanding meaning that new things will need to be built and new goods will need to be produced. Although Rosin is also noting that these jobs are male dominated with little education requirements which she suggests is a reason that women are finding more success than men.
At the very begging of the article, Rosin states that “for every two men who get a college degree this year, three women will do the same”. The fact that more women are attending post secondary schools and graduating from them than men is undisputable. However, it is worth noting that men are outnumbered in North America by women and that because jobs in construction and manufacturing are constantly growing due to an expanding society, that men may not see a reason to go to post secondary schooling to make a sufficient amount of money. Rosin continues by noting the statistics around degrees and post secondary education in which women also are dominating. An interesting statistic she notes is that “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.”37. Interesting that despite the fact that more women are attening post secondary schools, that still half of law and medical degrees are still earned by men and that more than half of all M.B.A.s. are earned by men. These fields are commonly known as quite versatile and well earning. The entire purpose of the article is to give an impression that men are in trouble and yet here we see a very important statistic in which it is clear that men appear to be dominating despite lower enrolment rates. To downplay the success and advancement of women in the past century is preposterous and should defiantly not be ignored, however to say men are at risk is an overstatement.
Women have worked hard to dispose of all past gender stereotypes and because of such, they have managed to make strides in controlling the economy. The types of jobs women are now able to do, would seem like mere fantasies as little as 50 years ago. Women may be earning higher schooling degrees, controlling majority of the workforce and becoming the desired sex in certain cultures; but that does not necessarily mean that men are in trouble by means of loosing dominance. The fact is that it should not matter which gender dominates which statistics as long as people of all races and genders are being treated equally and working towards a better future for their society. Men will continue forward to do whatever it takes to survive and adapt as a natural incline. To say that they are in danger because of a few declining numbers is absurd. Rosin makes many key points in her argument, but seems to be on the fence about what she really thinks of men. At times she seems to label men as brutes who know only how to make a living using their physical traits, and then seems to suggest that men now are more willing to take a back seat to the success of women as omega males. Overall her notion of “the end of men” seems simply incorrect.
Works Cited
-Rosin, Hanna. “The End of Men.”