Why are men so earnest? A historical and cultural perspective on the economic decline of their roles in the 60s and early 70s, and why are men less successful than women?
Over 80% of the men in that group were working or looking for work in the 60s. Since then, there’s been a steady decline. In October, the number was 88.5%, a slight dip from the previous two months.
The number of people taking on those roles has increased but is not enough to explain the retreat. It is a mystery to economists as to exactly what is happening with these men. Some of the leading theories are that they’re retreating because of problems with disability in many cases, mental health problems.”
Titled Of Boys and Men, the book explores the economic, social and cultural shifts that have forced men to the sidelines of the economy, including the loss of jobs in male-dominated fields such as manufacturing and the influx of women into the workforce, diminishing the need for men to serve as providers for their families.
You were a bit reluctant to to write this book about boys and men, dreading some of the criticism you might get for turning the focus away from girls and women. But you call that a false choice. Can you explain that?
There is not a lot of acknowledgement of the problems unique to men and boys. What are the consequences of continued silence on the issue?
The main goal of the post-war women’s movement was to secure economic independence for women so they didn’t have to rely on men in a material sense. That has been accomplished very quickly.
Women make less than men for every dollar a man makes. But as you write, this doesn’t tell the whole story. In recent decades, what has happened to men’s wages?
It’s been a success. But when it happens that quickly, it’s very hard for our culture to keep up. It’s difficult for us to make changes to our ideas of parenting, femininity and family life due to the fundamental economics of the time.
Half of the population has slipped back by comparison to four decades ago. And that’s ironically one of the reasons there has been this narrowing of the gender pay gap. I am not sure if anyone wants to close the gap by men becoming poorer.
The general pattern is one of widening inequality of wages generally, but of stagnating wages for the majority of American men. That has created the economic downturn.
The labor market has evolved away from jobs that required physical strength or low levels of education to be done largely through physical strength. It is usually said that a high school graduate could get a good union job in a factory. These changes to the economy are making those jobs scarcer and harder to find.
There has been a dramatic shift from brawny jobs, such as manufacturing, to strength-based jobs. You say the solution is not to bring back more “brawny” jobs for men, but to help men adapt, to take jobs in what you call the HEAL sectors. Tell us about it.
So I think it’s tempting for politicians to imagine we could bring back those old jobs. That’s magic wand-ism, honestly. There’s very little we can do to bring the economy back to normal.
Where are the jobs going to come from? Many of them are coming in the HEAL sectors — health, education, administration and literacy. It’s the same image of science, technology, engineering and math as the one seen in the movie.
There will be some shortages in those areas. More people need to be working in those areas. And there aren’t enough women to solve the labor market challenges in every occupation,” said Reeves.
Only 5% are male psychologists under the age of 30. In the 1980’s it was a slightly male profession. 40% of elementary and middle school teachers were male back in 1980. Now it’s down to one in 10 in elementary schools.
One of my sons works in early education. He can talk quite movingly about the stigma that you’ll face as a man. People will question your motives. At worst, some people will suggest, either jokingly or not, that you might be motivated by pedophilia. Do you like young kids that appeal to you?
There are some quite nasty stereotypes around men in those professions. There are barriers when it comes to that so we have to be realistic about that. What that means is we have to work extra hard to try to make those professions seem like they are appropriate to men.
If you have a mental health problem, and you want a psychologist, there are going to be men who would prefer a male therapist. I definitely did better with a male therapist.
You take areas like substance abuse counseling. Most substance abusers are men, but most substance abuse counselors are women. Most children referred to special needs are boys, but most special needs teachers are women. And so on.
There is a mismatch between the sex of the users and the providers. I’m not saying that always matters, and in some cases it might be better if it’s a woman. But there is enough evidence to suggest that sometimes it’s good to have a man caring for a boy or another man.
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I think the consequences of failing to look these problems squarely in the face and address them is, firstly, that they will get worse. They are not going to solve themselves. They will need intentional public policy to address them.
At a deeper level, the malaise can spill over into political grievances. And that then can be exploited by some skillful populists or online personalities or whoever it is.
There are a good number of young men who feel they are being neglected or ignored. That creates some really fertile soil for some pretty bad stuff to get seeded. I think we are reaping the consequences of our neglect.
A typical morning at the Schnitzler household starts with David and Allison feeding their 17-month-old Winston. Allison and David play with Winston as they are about to go to work.
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At the time it was difficult for me to decide, I was at a very important point in my career. Is it better for me to take care of the baby? Am I even going to like taking care of a baby?” David said.
At the height of the pandemic, 22 million jobs were lost. The skewed total number was because so many women took care of themselves at home when schools and daycares were closed during lockdowns. Since then, men and women have gained back all the jobs lost.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s male, female, whatever, everyone’s got their place. [Allison] has a high level of skills and passion for her job, and that’s wonderful. “I can support her being, a better physician, and so on,” said Schnitzler.
And of the 263,000 jobs added to the US economy last month, 61.6% of those are held by women, according to the National Women’s Law Center. More women between the ages of 30-44 are joining the workforce in recent months — and at a higher percentage than before the pandemic.
Women are stepping in to jobs that were previously held by men. Ava Sedaghat joined the construction industry about two years ago as a project engineer in New York City.
“I think it was definitely intimidating because my only knowledge of the construction industry was that it was pretty heavy and male dominated. But the more that I started working in the industry and the more people I came into contact with, I think I realized pretty quickly on that there’s a place for everyone in construction,” said Sedaghat.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/economy/men-missing-from-the-labor-force/index.html
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Sedaghat is currently working on renovating the Port Richmond Library on Staten Island. The only woman on the project is in her office at Gilbane Building Company.
Work from home or virtual jobs are no longer stigmatized because of the way they are done. And gender roles in the workplace are slowly changing — with more men now needed in female-dominated industries, like nursing and teaching.
Early next year the Schnitzlers will welcome a new baby, another boy. The couple plans to keep the current family roles — but David isn’t counting himself out of the labor market for good.
He said that he was not out of the workforce, but retired. We would like to give our second child the same things that we gave to our first one, but only if a parent is able to give them all.