The End of Men? May 22, 2013Expert BlogsOff

A new book, “The End of Men,” is hot off the presses and in bookstores or on Kindles across the country. Recent newspaper and magazine articles deal with the same topic—and in largely the same way. The gist? That men’s “command and control” style of management is outdated and they are incapable of adapting to the changing workplace environment. Consequently, we will see—well—the end of men as rulers of the workplace.
Women, they state, not only possess a style that is more conducive to the times but are also better at adjusting their style to conform to a new norm. So we, in turn, will now rule the world.
Is this true? Are men going to lose the hold they have had on business for centuries in the blink of an eye? “Not so fast,” says Stephanie Coontz. In the September 30, 2012 Sunday Review section of The New York Times, her front page article screams, “The Myth of the Male Decline: America has hardly become a matriarchy.”
She believes that the books, articles, and “the cultural anxiety they represent reflect, but exaggerate, a transformation in the distribution of power over the past half century.” A transformation that was long overdue and was a long time coming. According to sociologist R. W. Connell, men have enjoyed what he calls a “patriarchal dividend”—a lifelong affirmative action program…for men! Coontz points out that the relatively recent expansion of women’s legal and economic rights (we can now—gasp—obtain credit in our own names!) has indeed transformed American life but “they have hardly produced a matriarchy.
Women make up almost 40% of full-time workers in management roles but earn 73% of their male counterparts; only 3% and 4% of the Fortune 500 and 1000 CEOs respectively are female; and even in higher education where more women outnumber men for undergraduate degrees, women are still concentrated in “traditionally” female areas of study.
The descent of men applies more to a subset of the male population than the masters of the universe who have ruled the workplace for generations. So while we can and should celebrate the recent accomplishments of women in business, we shouldn’t be planning a funeral for businessmen just yet. They will survive—and I am sure—thrive no matter what the future brings.
By Erin Wolf

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