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This week's edition of The New York Times Book Review includes considerations of several new books about women's issues, including Hanna Rosin's “The End of Men: And the Rise of Women.†Ms. Rosin argues that we've entered a new era in which women are increasingly dominant in both public and private spheres. In her review of the book, Jennifer Homans takes issue with the triumphant tone of Ms. Rosin's subtitle. Ms. Homans writes:
But this “rise,†which Rosin so cheerfully reports, is in fact a devastating social collapse. It starts with i nequality and class division. As Rosin herself shows, men at “the top†of society are not “ending.†It is all happening to the lower and middle classes, because “the end of men†is the end of a manufacturing-based economy and the men who worked there, many of whom are now unemployed, depressed, increasingly dependent on the state and women to support them. We know the numbers, and they are bad: since 2000 the manufacturing economy has lost six million jobs, a third of its total work force - much of it male. In 1950, 1 in 20 men in their prime were not working; today the number is a terrifying 1 in 5.
On this week's podcast, Jennifer Szalai and Parul Sehgal of the Book Review discuss “The End of Men†and other new books; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Tom Reiss talks about “The Black Countâ€; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
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