The End of Men - Hanna Rosin

Subtitle: and the Rise of Women

I bet that title got your attention!  This non-fiction book makes the case for the declining dominance of men in society and the rise of women.  The author explains how women in the last few decades have benefited from changes in society's attitudes and practices toward sex, marriage and education of women and how men have been declining in power.  She refers to the Plastic Woman and the Cardboard Man - plastic in the sense that women have adapted to the demise of the industrial age and taken advantage of sexual liberation, property rights and higher education while men have remain inflexible in adapting to these changes.

Her arguments are a mix of factual statistics and anecdotal cases of women's changing roles.  She uses interviews with 30-somethings dealing with the changing roles to illuminate the trends and changes occurring.  She states that women have less need for marriage because of their ability to support themselves and control childbirth while noting that many of the generation are embracing new models of marriage with stay-at-home Dads and fluid parental and spousal roles.  She explains and provides examples of how the passing of the industrial age and the rise of the knowledge/technical age is to women's advantage as brawn and brute strength skills give way to communication and detail-oriented ones.

In all I thought the evidence was cherry picked and felt that while the trends may be valid they are hardly as widespread as she would claim.  It did give me a different perspective on the lifestyles and environment that the next generation is living and experiencing.

Published: 2012   Read: December 2012   Genre: Non-fiction