Women are moving on top of men in America

Summary:  Long-time readers have seen some stunning but accurate predictions during the past 7 years. The secret to this track record: predicting things that have already happened, but that our preconceptions prevent us from seeing. Here’s another.  {1st of 2 posts today.}

 

Contents

1. See the future by looking at the present.
2. Women as leaders.
3. Hollywood shows us the future.
4. Conclusions.
5. For More Information.
6. Poor Castle, a beta in his own show.

 

(1)  We can see the future if we look at the present

What will America look like if current trends continue putting women on top of men? I (and others) have written about this for 5 years, yet the narratives of women’s oppression remained so strong that the facts have only recently penetrated to public awareness — and few have yet considered their implications. Enrichment programs for women, scholarship programs for women, job programs for women — all adding to the growing gap in women’s performance over men’s.  People are beginning to notice: “Women’s Participation in Education and the Workforce“, Council of Economic Advisers, 14 October 2014.  Some of their observations, about which they draw no conclusions (wisely, too inflammatory)…

• Women’s college going has surpassed men’s in recent decades and has continued to increase. Women are more likely to go to college and graduate school and more likely to graduate from when they go. In 2013, 25-34 year old women were 21% more likely than men to be college graduates and 48% more likely to have completed graduate school.
• Women now account for almost half of students in JD, MBA, and MD programs, up from less than 10% in the 1960s.
• College-educated young women are now as likely to be employed as doctors, dentists, lawyers, professors, managers and scientists as traditionally female-dominated occupations such as teachers, nurses, librarians, secretaries, or social workers. … The share of occupations in which women are at least 80% of all workers has remained relatively constant.
• Men and women with professional degrees have similar earnings in their 20s.
• Women earn more than men in 16% of all married couples and 29% of married couples where both spouses work. These shares have nearly doubled since 1981.

See the future in the relative graduation rates of women vs. men. More women have bachelor’s degrees; more women have some graduate school, and the gap is widening…

 

(2)  Women as leaders

For another perspective on the future see this Pew Poll asking about leadership qualities: most see little difference between the genders. But a third see women as better in many ways, while few see men as better. That’s a large edge for women, and might prove decisive as the biases about their proper role fade away.

(3)  Hollywood shows us the future

The arts help us see leadership passing from men to women. The first wave of equality in film passed long ago (e.g, V.I. Warshawski in 1991, GI Jane in 1997).  Carol Danvers took the mantle of the dead Captain Marvel in 2012. Thor becomes unworthy of the title, which passes to his girlfriend Jane Foster (with Mjolnir) in 2014. The leadership of SHIELD passes from Nick Fury to Daisy Johnson and then Maria Hill. An all-female Ghostbusters hits our screens next year. Many more movies and TV shows about female superheroes are coming.

We see the future even more clearly in the more mundane shows. For several generations TV sit-coms show the typical American family with a powerful wife and her foolish lesser husband, as do commercials. Now TV shows generalize this pattern, with dysfunctional or broken male characters supported by solid, wise, often omnicompetent women. Beckett dominates her beta husband Castle on “Castle”. The TV show Elementary features Joan Watson as vastly superior in almost every sense to Sherlock Holmes (decisively so in the finales of season 1 and 3); his nemesis, Jamie Moriarty, is superior in every way (she’s defeated by Joan).

Even action-adventure films, male’s last bastion of superiority, have begun to show a shifting balance from near-equality of the leads (e.g., as in most Bond films for the past 20 years) to the dominant woman. For example, the lead actor in Max Max 4 is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), not Mad Max (Tom Hardy).

The Disney films show the future the most clearly, perhaps since Disney designs them for girls who will become the future’s leaders. The early Disney Princesses passively waited in center stage for rescue by their Princes. Then they were partners in adventure with men: Pocahontas (1995), Aladdin (1992), Mulan (1998), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Tangled (2010). Now they are part of all-women ensembles with men in minor roles only: Brave (2012) and Frozen (2013).

(4)  Conclusions

Men have the edge in the generations now in power, people born in 1975 and later. We’re seeing a demographic transition in which women shift to a superior position. It’s already happened, but demographic transitions take decades to play out. In 20 years the generation taking power will have more women than men with the college degree that’s the first step on the ladder — equal fractions of men and women with the all-important advanced educational credentials that lead to the top.

That generation grew up with attitudes far different than their parents about gender roles, and attitudes radically different than those of their grandparents. The resulting social revolution will be beyond anything we can imagine today as almost every aspect of society will change.

See tomorrow’s post for examples of war in the films of the future.

(5)  For More Information

For more about this trend I recommend reading “The Rise of Women: 7 Charts Showing Women’s Rapid Gains in Educational Achievement” (Russell Sage Foundation, 2013) and “Percentage of Bachelor’s degrees conferred to women, by major (1970-2012)“. The latter shows that women are catching up fast in the sciences: 40-45% in Math, Statistics, and the Physical Sciences in 2012, and 58% Biology degrees. Got to love the author’s response (a guy) to women getting the majority of biology degrees: “Even better!” Equality was yesterday’s goal.

How did this happen? I suggest starting with these books…

• The book that started the new era (awareness of these changes): The Myth of Male Power by Warren Farrell (1993).
• Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax (2007).
• The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre (2008).
• Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That’s Leaving Them Behind by Richard Whitmire (2010)

If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Women and gender issues, especially these posts about our adjustments to a society with moving women on top of men…

• Women in combat are the real Revolution in Military Affairs.
• “Castle” helps us adjust to a new America, with women on top.
• “Mockingjay” shows us a Revolution in Gender Roles. What’s the next revolution?
• Taylor Swift shows us love in the 21st century – with women on top.

(6)  Poor Castle, a beta in his own show