Kay S. Hymowitz has an essay in yesterday’s WSJ arguing that too many men in their 20s are living in a new kind of extended adolescence. I’m not sure that male diminishment is solely attributable to female advancement, but Hymowitz lays out an ambitious case:
What explains this puerile shallowness? I see it as an expression of our cultural uncertainty about the social role of men. It’s been an almost universal rule of civilization that girls became women simply by reaching physical maturity, but boys had to pass a test. They needed to demonstrate courage, physical prowess or mastery of the necessary skills. The goal was to prove their competence as protectors and providers. Today, however, with women moving ahead in our advanced economy, husbands and fathers are now optional, and the qualities of character men once needed to play their roles—fortitude, stoicism, courage, fidelity—are obsolete, even a little embarrassing.
Agree or disagree, at least check out the bar graph in the middle of the article. Hymowitz is the author of Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys