This is the title of a book by Hanna Rosin. She explores the rapidly changing gender dynamics around the world as a result of economics, demographics and education. She argues that since the 70’s when male supremacy reigned and women were still largely expected to take a “back seat” to their man, much has changed.
Pay inequities between men and women are narrowing. In 2010 young American women had higher median incomes than their male counterparts in all but three metropolitan regions.
Rosin reports that more young men have rolled back their career ambitions in part because the economy is now creating more jobs in fields traditionally held by women such as health care and other service professions. Men are still not pursuing these fields in large numbers.
Women are the majority in colleges and universities on every continent except Africa.
In South Korea for example where just a generation ago the culture was extremely male controlled, it is now a country of “manic super women” where daughters are preferred over sons.
My observations are that technology has played a major role in these changes. Women are marrying at an older age on average for a variety of reasons with one major factor being that the biological clock can tick longer. Thanks to advances in medicine it is not uncommon anymore for a woman to have her first child after 40. Additionally techniques such as artificial insemination give women more options for how and when to conceive.
With career options are more lucrative than many of their male counterparts, expanded options for child bearing, and changing views on single mothers, women are no longer as dependent on men.
While these trends that level the playing field bode well for the future, we are not there yet. Women are still conspicuously missing from the C-suite and the boardroom and are still subjected to subtle and at times not so subtle discrimination. Of those in poverty around the world, 70% are women. Domestic violence rates against women continue to rise.
What is the inclusion solution? We should not continue to foster an “us and them” mentality where one sex is seen as superior to the other (even though selfishly I would like to experience “woman supremacy , if only for while….). Shedding deeply seated beliefs about each sex will be required to achieve true equality. Our world will be better for it in every conceivable way.
