Masculinity and Its Discontents

I've been getting increasingly concerned about the status of men in Western society, and today I came upon more troubling evidence.

In this Sunday's Union Leader,we have news that women will soon outnumber men at college by a ratio of 3 to 2. At first I assumed this just meant the numbers of women going to college were increasing while the number of men was staying constant. But even this is not so:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the proportion of 18- to 24-year-old female high school graduates enrolled in college increased from 25.1 percent to 45.6 percent from 1967 to 2000. The same population of males enrolled in college during that time frame declined from 44.7 percent to 40.9 percent.

So not only are there more women than men at college, a greater percentage of women than men attend college. Even more worrisome is that the percentage of men going to college has decreased over the past forty years.

Why is this a problem? We've discussed at length the importance of skilled labor, productivity, and the creation of the middle class. If fewer men are going to college and getting the necessary skills, fewer will be able to take part in the high-tech (and high wage) economy. Indeed, the Union Leader article notes that more men are 'drifting' through low-wage service jobs.

My chief concern is what it means for our demographic future when there are markedly more educated women than men. The two examples of Germany and birth/marriage rates in America are sadly instructive (see this article for a more personal perspective on the issues faced by black women in particular).

In the case of Germany, some 40 percent of educated women have never had children. On the other side of the ledger (and the ocean), 69 percent of births to black women are out-of-wedlock. Moreover, those women who had 'nonmarital births' were more likely never to get married. As the study puts it

Only 59% of black women who had a nonmarital birth married by age 40, compared with 76% of black women who avoided a nonmarital birth. Among those who lost or terminated a nonmarital pregnancy, 66% married by age 40. Thus, although nonmarital childbearing reduces the likelihood of marriage among black women, their overall low rates of marriage—even among childless women—suggest that other factors, such as cultural attitudes and values or the shortage of economically attractive men, also play a large role.

What's happening among the black community is also happening to whites and Hispanics, albeit in smaller numbers.

The cause behind it seems to be this: in the first case, highly-educated, upper-middle class women are having trouble finding male equals as partners. When that's added to the fact that these same women have many more professional and personal choices than they used to, many are simply electing not to get married or have children. In the second case, less-educated, working-class women are having trouble finding a male partner who can serve as a stable breadwinner for a family.

The result of this in future decades could be devastating: fewer two-parent homes and millions of men detached from family and mainstream society. This is no idle problem: when men are not connected, economically and socially, to the stability of families, bad things happen. Masculinity that is not integrated into society finds explosive and dangerous outlets.

But just at the time when we need a greater understanding of masculinity and a reinvigoration of the masculine ethos, we find that our society and culture continue to do more harm than good. Doubt me? I urge you, as a very simple test, to begin watching commercials on TV. You'll find that the men on display generally fall into two very handy archetypes, depending on which product is being sold : the pushover dad (for a particularly bad piece of emasculation, check this out) or the narcissist egomaniac. There's more, of course. Male children are more likely to be disciplined in school and less likely to be understood, because there are more female teachers who aren't even considering how to teach boys. Public intellectuals openly wonder if the existence of the Y chromosome is really necessary. The Democratic Party refuses to take any strong stands that would speak of "aggression." I could go on.

So I put it to the commenters: what is to be done? What is the proper role of men and women in the age of gender equality? Is it based on gender difference at all? What does this say about the tenability of gender equality, if anything? Surprise me!

Update: In re-reading my post, I realized it could seem that I am claiming male victimhood. This is not the case. I think men, by and large, have played into these stereotypes and often make a generally poor showing of themselves and the gender. It's up to men to fix that, too.