2. I do think that Hannah Rosin is correct about the end of the dominance of men in hookup culture, pharmacy, the middle class, marriages, and in the classroom. However, many of these realms of the decline of men were not topics of this course. We did discuss gender and education, and I would argue that Rosin is right about the end of men in education, as women have surpassed men at almost all levels. The statistics are striking. Women earn almost 60% of all bachelors degrees, and masters degrees, and are beginning to crowd out men even in engineering and science (Rosin 149). This trend is not limited to the United States- in Qatar, women make up nearly 70% of college graduates (Rosin 150). In China, men account for 80% of the fifty million
…show more content…
I will discuss the ‘end of men’ thesis in contrast to what we have learned in three units in this class: gender and the workplace, women in the military, and women as political candidates. Although women are getting degrees at higher rates than men, we haven’t seen this trend translate to major gains in the workforce, particularly at the top. In recent years, the percentage of women in top management positions has stalled. Only 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and the percentage of women on corporate boards has been stuck at 12% for a decade (Warner 2014). Women’s labor force participation has also leveled off, and as of 2004 “a smaller percentage of married women with children under 3 were in the labor force than in 1993” (Coontz 2013). One study suggests that this is because only 40% of the mothers who attempted to re-enter the workforce were able to find full time jobs. Men simply don’t face the same obstacles around parenting that women do, and its unclear how or when these obstacles will be eliminated for the majority of women. Women face a wage penalty of around 7% for each child, while men can actually benefit in the workplace from becoming fathers (Kurzleben 2014). Gender equality in the workplace has stalled because “structural impediments prevent people from acting on their egalitarian values, forcing men and women into personal accommodations and …show more content…
This isn’t because voters won’t elect women- when women run, they win at the same rates as men. One of the main causes of the low representation of women is that there simply aren’t enough women going into politics as a career. Only 19% of members of Congress are female. The growth in female politicians is primarily among Democratic women and has leveled off in recent years. From 1990 to 2015, the percentage of female state legislators only increased by 4%. In a study of political ambition, women were more than 50 percent more likely than men to assert that they would never run for political office (Lawless & Fox 2). The researchers identified five factors that explain the political ambition gap among college students: women are less likely to be socialized by parents to think of politics as career path, women tend to be exposed to less political information, women are less likely to have played sports and care about winning, women are less likely to receive encouragement to run for office, and women are less likely to think they are qualified (Lawless & Fox ii). These are complex cultural problems that can’t remedied through the legal system. These attitudes and the differences in the ways we raise and speak to girls could take years or even generations to change, so the gender gap in politics is unlikely to end anytime
I will discuss the ‘end of men’ thesis in contrast to what we have learned in three units in this class: gender and the workplace, women in the military, and women as political candidates. Although women are getting degrees at higher rates than men, we haven’t seen this trend translate to major gains in the workforce, particularly at the top. In recent years, the percentage of women in top management positions has stalled. Only 4.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and the percentage of women on corporate boards has been stuck at 12% for a decade (Warner 2014). Women’s labor force participation has also leveled off, and as of 2004 “a smaller percentage of married women with children under 3 were in the labor force than in 1993” (Coontz 2013). One study suggests that this is because only 40% of the mothers who attempted to re-enter the workforce were able to find full time jobs. Men simply don’t face the same obstacles around parenting that women do, and its unclear how or when these obstacles will be eliminated for the majority of women. Women face a wage penalty of around 7% for each child, while men can actually benefit in the workplace from becoming fathers (Kurzleben 2014). Gender equality in the workplace has stalled because “structural impediments prevent people from acting on their egalitarian values, forcing men and women into personal accommodations and …show more content…
This isn’t because voters won’t elect women- when women run, they win at the same rates as men. One of the main causes of the low representation of women is that there simply aren’t enough women going into politics as a career. Only 19% of members of Congress are female. The growth in female politicians is primarily among Democratic women and has leveled off in recent years. From 1990 to 2015, the percentage of female state legislators only increased by 4%. In a study of political ambition, women were more than 50 percent more likely than men to assert that they would never run for political office (Lawless & Fox 2). The researchers identified five factors that explain the political ambition gap among college students: women are less likely to be socialized by parents to think of politics as career path, women tend to be exposed to less political information, women are less likely to have played sports and care about winning, women are less likely to receive encouragement to run for office, and women are less likely to think they are qualified (Lawless & Fox ii). These are complex cultural problems that can’t remedied through the legal system. These attitudes and the differences in the ways we raise and speak to girls could take years or even generations to change, so the gender gap in politics is unlikely to end anytime