“What if the modern, postindustrial economy is simply more congenial to women than to men? For a long time, evolutionary psychologists have claimed that we are all imprinted with adaptive imperatives from a distant past: men are faster and stronger and hardwired to fight for scarce resources, and that shows up now as a drive to win on Wall Street; women are programmed to find good providers and to care for their offspring, and that is manifested in more- nurturing and more-flexible behavior, ordaining them to domesticity. This kind of thinking frames our sense of the natural order. But what if men and women were fulfilling not biological imperatives but social roles, based on what was more efficient throughout a long era of human history? What if that era has now come to an end? More to the point, what if the economics of the new era are better suited to women?”
The above is an excerpt from The End of Men by writer Hanna Rosen published in The Atlantic in July 2010.
It’s a long article and well worth the read. I tend to believe that we have fulfilled social roles but change is inevitable. Our roles are evolving, women have been innately feeling it for decades and have worked to make it happen while many fight against the unfamiliarity of change. Now it’s the men who must evolve and share some of the responsibilities that have been a burden to women working outside the home. This prolonged transformation has left women juggling more than their fair share and the process has had an unforeseen side effect. It’s made women more efficient, more organized and more determined; skills that have proactively benefitted the workplace.
