Is the Male Decline a Myth? Coonz Says Yes!

Stephanie Coonz's New York Times article, The Myth of Male Decline, clearly shows that the workplace and economy are still severely stacked against women, especially mothers. We know that over their working lives the actual wage gap between women and men is actually much greater than the much touted 78 percent largely because so women are still primarily responsible for care work in families, and unlike other developed nations our rich country does not provide paid family leave, paid parental leave, much social security credit for the first years of caring for a child at home or caregiver tax credits. As Coonz points out, this notion that the essential work of caring for people in families is "just women's work" also negatively impacts men who want to do this work because of this care double standard. But for women, especially as we age, the results are disastrous as reflected in U.S. Census figures showing that women over the age of 65 are much more likely to be poor than men of the same age. And this, even though supporting the work of caring for people, starting in early childhood, is the best investment a nation can make, indeed, it is essential if we are to have the "high quality human capital" essential for us to be competitive in the knowledge/service post-industrial era.

Coonz's states:

SCROLL through the titles and subtitles of recent books, and you will read that women have become “The Richer Sex,” that “The Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys,” and that we may even be seeing “The End of Men.” Several of the authors of these books posit that we are on the verge of a “new majority of female breadwinners,” where middle-class wives lord over their husbands while demoralized single men take refuge in perpetual adolescence.

Read more about the article here on the New York Times website.