A TED talk by Hanna Rosin on the rise of women gives very optimistic information on the state of women in the world. I hesitate to title this blog post with the same title as her talk (Rise of Women) nor the slightly sensationalist title of the article preceding this talk in the Atlantic: The End of Men. I also hesitate to say optimistic data, since she refers to a lot of anecdotal evidence mostly based on experience and observation (I call this folk data).
I make it clear that her main thesis is actually about parents preferring girls at fertility clinics in the U.S. And in East Asia, parents are no longer "strongly preferring baby boys". This doesn't seem like enormous progress to me, but I suppose its better than the generation of 1.2:1 boys-to-girls ratio currently coming of age in China.
I also think her point that "young women are now earning more than young men" is relatively consistent with the blog post I wrote a month ago about working moms, which made the following harrowing conclusion: "Women do almost as well as men today, as long as they don’t have children". In other words, wages and income are relatively similar between men and women until babies come along. Many young women don't yet have babies, ergo young women could earn more than young men.
And finally, I'm not convinced that these women she interviewed at the college in Kansas who expect their husbands to stay at home with the kids actually represent the norm ("Men are the new ball and chain!"). If she's going to use folk data to tell a story, I will too. I'd say that the impression that men will stay home with children is not quite a reality yet. Numbers of stay-at-home-dads appear to be rising, but its certainly not the norm. From my own perspective and experiences, the cultural tradition of women doing domestic work and childcare is still quite prevalent (and believe me, I am all for this reversal), but this seems to be my observation thus far. Even more curious is that this seems to me to be relatively accepted even if both parents are working and among my rather highly educated peers.
I make it clear that her main thesis is actually about parents preferring girls at fertility clinics in the U.S. And in East Asia, parents are no longer "strongly preferring baby boys". This doesn't seem like enormous progress to me, but I suppose its better than the generation of 1.2:1 boys-to-girls ratio currently coming of age in China.
I also think her point that "young women are now earning more than young men" is relatively consistent with the blog post I wrote a month ago about working moms, which made the following harrowing conclusion: "Women do almost as well as men today, as long as they don’t have children". In other words, wages and income are relatively similar between men and women until babies come along. Many young women don't yet have babies, ergo young women could earn more than young men.
And finally, I'm not convinced that these women she interviewed at the college in Kansas who expect their husbands to stay at home with the kids actually represent the norm ("Men are the new ball and chain!"). If she's going to use folk data to tell a story, I will too. I'd say that the impression that men will stay home with children is not quite a reality yet. Numbers of stay-at-home-dads appear to be rising, but its certainly not the norm. From my own perspective and experiences, the cultural tradition of women doing domestic work and childcare is still quite prevalent (and believe me, I am all for this reversal), but this seems to be my observation thus far. Even more curious is that this seems to me to be relatively accepted even if both parents are working and among my rather highly educated peers.
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