As the economy attempts to cleanse itself of the malinvestments of the decade-long bubble, jobs dominated by men have been sacrificed: construction, finance, and manufacturing. Hanna Rosin writes in the Atlantic, “The recession merely revealed—and accelerated—a profound economic shift that has been going on for at least 30 years, and in some respects even longer.”
Rosin makes clear that whatever it is that men bring to the party is not needed anymore. Job categories dominated by women are expected to thrive in the coming years and women are earning half again as many college degrees as males.
“The attributes that are most valuable today—social intelligence, open communication, the ability to sit still and focus—are, at a minimum, not predominantly male,” explains Rosin, who also makes the point, “The well-paid lifetime union job has been disappearing for at least 30 years.”
So the information and technology age has not, and likely will not, be kind to those with physical skills toiling for a union wage with the help of government’s erected barriers-to-entry like minimum wage laws and the like. What was the incentive for young men to focus in school when, if they had the right connections, there was a job down at the plant or on the construction site paying good money?
Young women meanwhile tend to have a lower time preferences than young men. Guys want to make some money and sow their wild oats, while girls are thoughtfully thinking about their futures. That used to be by way of marrying “right,” but now, Mr. Right has become irrelevant. Indeed, in the recent movie Up in the Air, George Clooney’s character is rejected twice. “If the sexiest man alive can get twice rejected (and sexually played) in a movie,” Rosin writes “what hope is there for anyone else?”
As with many things, H. L. Mencken, was ahead of his time and saw the truth. When a woman’s prospects were limited, marriage was of the utmost importance to her future . “The very fact that marriages occur at all is a proof, indeed, that they are more cool-headed and more adept in employing their intellectual resources, for it is plainly to a man’s interest to avoid marriage as long as possible, and as plainly to a woman’s interests to make a favorable marriage as soon as she can,” explained Mencken.
And while men seek partners based upon looks, women have pragmatically been attracted to men of means. “A shop girl, perhaps, may plausibly fall in love with a moving-picture actor, and a half-idiotic old widow may succumb to a college boy with shoulders like the Parthenon. Women know how little such purely superficial values are worth.”
But now successful women can indulge themselves. “The New York Times columnist Gail Collins recently wrote that the cougar phenomenon is beginning to look like it’s not about desperate women at all but about ‘desperate young American men who are latching on to an older woman who’s a good earner,’” writes Rosin.
The Marlboro Man has busted out. For all the bluster and bravado, when the bubble popped he was exposed. “A man’s womenfolk, whatever their outward show of respect for his merit and authority,” Mencken wrote, “always regard him secretly as an ass, and with something akin to pity.”
