Female Supremacy Articles - Page 19
Man About the House
The Sunday Times
March 26, 2006
The ascent of the alpha female has led to the rise of the omega male — a wimp who’s lost touch with his masculinity. Nirpal Dhaliwal explains how he has coped in his marriage to writer Liz Jones
Men are the new women. It’s official. Witness David Cameron opining about overweight children, criticising shops for locating sweets at the checkout. Ever since he became Tory leader, he has taken every opportunity to prove what an empathetic Mr Nice Guy he is, sounding like a plaid-skirted housewife nattering at the school gates. Fat kids need to be shouted at and made to run laps around the sports field, but hard masculine truths like this are no longer acceptable. Feminism has long moved from emancipating women to colonising the male psyche. Men get nowhere these days unless they can prove their female credentials.
Acting nice and caring was once just a ruse, used by ugly guys to get laid. But somehow this lame, wholly contrived persona has become a template for British masculinity. In response to feminism and the rise of the alpha female — the ambitious, independent and successful woman — British men have become weak, gelatinous omega males, unwilling to even admit, let alone express, their manliness in case they are made to sleep on the couch for daring to have a backbone. In her determined climb up the ladder, the alpha female has no time for men with minds of their own: husbands and boyfriends are merely support staff, assisting her career by providing constant reassurance and an emollient, stress-free domestic life.
I married an alpha female. Significantly older than me, she’s a highly successful writer and former magazine editor. When we met, she thought I was just a gauche, malleable pup she could fit into her media-diva lifestyle. At the beginning of our relationship, I tried to play along: I listened to her whine about work pressures and became her emotional toilet. Finally, I just got real and told her either to dump her job, or me. She earned a six-figure salary and she ought to be grateful; plenty of people have tough jobs, but don’t have Prada knickers or fancy furniture to show for it. She should try raising four kids on a pittance, I told her, like my mum. Then she could bitch all she liked.
Women, especially alpha ones, love guys who tell them to shut up. They need someone who sees through their hormonal neuroticism and keeps their feet on the ground. My wife compromised; she kept both the job and me, but didn’t gripe so much. Unlike omega males, I was confident with my end of the deal: I was young, fit and handsome, and I was giving her a lot of hot sex. She wasn’t going to kick me out.
Men do have a caring side. We are vulnerable, considerate and protective of our loved ones; but in equal measure, selfish, libidinous and cruel. Historically, men have generated almost all the great art, science and philosophy; we’re also to blame for almost all the war, carnage and mayhem. The two sides are inextricably linked. If we didn’t have such huge egos to feed, we wouldn’t bother with the arduous labour of writing novels or decoding the genome. We live for glory, be it in sport, music or battle.
But now men, particularly middle-class ones, deny this part of themselves. So we have a culture bereft of heroic male figures, and a generation that struggles with retarded identities and a terror of women. Once, icons such as Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen portrayed men in their entirety. They played roles that were gentle, stoic, vicious and explosive — believable, multifaceted characters. Now, men are encouraged to admire Chris Martin and Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos — creepy, weirdo nerds who, in the past, would’ve been buried under all the sand kicked in their faces.
In my novel, Tourism, I write about working-class men and upper-class women, and about the dynamic between men of different ethnicities as they seek an identity for themselves. The omega male is generally a white-boy phenomenon. Confronted by the more robust masculinities presented by some black and Asian men, white men have cultivated an extreme effeteness, possibly trying to mark themselves as being more civilised. While black music has grown increasingly macho, indie bands are composed of pasty, withered sissies. Both are parodic, revealing how unsure men are today of how to present themselves. The aggressive, crotch-thrusting rapper is a moronic response to the alpha females who have long dominated the black community, managing careers and raising families with little or no male support.
Asian men flounder, unable to decide between the enticements and insecurities of western life, and the rigid certainties and comforts of traditional patriarchy. Few know how to integrate the competing elements of their masculinity into an honest, functional whole.
This isn’t helped by the confused agendas pursued by post-feminist women. Modern women juggle an absurd collection of ambitions; they want money and status, an active social life and a stable, fulfilling relationship. It’s an equation that can never be balanced; something is always compromised. That compromise is often in the bedroom. The omega male cooks lasagnes and takes out the rubbish, but he’s not sexy and never will be. He offers no danger or excitement. He’s a loyal and needy lapdog, making a sweet companion, but a puerile lover. A woman might pretend she fancies nice-guy wimps, but when omega male’s making love to her, she closes her eyes and thinks of the sex-god bastard who broke her heart. The truth may be that the only women who genuinely find sensitivity and emotional literacy a turn-on are lesbians. They find feminine qualities attractive and are, accordingly, attracted to women. It might be that the typical alpha female is just a repressed, high-power dyke; unwilling to express her homo nature, she instead seeks out feminised men who will make the least sexual demands of her.
For the few who are man enough to take her on, the alpha female can make a great partner. Having a successful wife has allowed me to take it easy and write a novel while spending her money. Being with a dynamic woman has lifted my game, raising my intelligence and self-confidence. It’s been a productive, stimulating challenge for both of us. But for millions of guys, the alpha female is an obdurate force to be reckoned with. Her continuing rise means omega males will be perfecting their foot rubs and lasagnes for a long time to come.
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Chile Inaugurates Its First Woman as President
By LARRY ROHTER
SANTIAGO, Chile, March 11 — Michelle Bachelet, a Socialist, pediatrician and former political prisoner and exile, was sworn in on Saturday as the first woman to be president of Chile, the culmination of its long and painful journey from repression and dictatorship to democracy.
Ms. Bachelet, 54, was elected to a four-year term in January, winning 53.5 percent of the vote in a runoff. Her accession to power here is also a milestone: though six other women have served as presidents of Latin American countries, Ms. Bachelet, a single mother of three, is the first on the continent to be elected who is not the widow of a political leader and has built a career on her own.
Ms. Bachelet is the daughter of an air force general who was jailed for treason and died in prison after Gen. Augusto Pinochet took power in an American-supported coup in 1973.
In a country where the Roman Catholic Church wields great power, Ms. Bachelet is also openly agnostic, and when she took her oath of office she promised rather than swore to uphold the Chilean Constitution.
She also has promised a government that focuses on social equality and respect for human rights. Her immediate priorities, she indicated as a candidate, are a more just distribution of income and reform of the country's pension system, which is increasingly unpopular here.
But even before her inauguration at the Chilean Congress building in Valparaiso, Ms. Bachelet has already fulfilled another of her campaign promises: sexual equity in appointments to government posts. She has named a cabinet of 10 men and 10 women, and designated the governors of the country's 12 regions on the same basis.
On Wednesday, at ceremonies for International Women's Day, Ms. Bachelet stated that she intended to extend the principle to all official nominations.
"I've given clear instructions, and here I take advantage to do a commercial," she said. "Chile is going to be the first country that will have, in public sector decision making positions, total parity" between men and women.
Only one of Ms. Bachelet's appointments has stirred real controversy, and that was for familiar ideological reasons. For her choice as the deputy defense minister for the air force, she named Raúl Vergara Meneses, a former military officer who was one of her father's cellmates when he died and who later, while in exile in Nicaragua in the 1980's, was a commander in the Sandinista air force in Nicaragua.
Right-wing parties that supported the Pinochet dictatorship and have expressed suspicions that Ms. Bachelet intended to steer the country leftward have protested loudly. But Ms. Bachelet has held firm, and Mr. Vergara Meneses has defended himself by noting that he may be the only member of the Chilean Air Force with real combat experience.
About 30 leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from Africa and Oceania, were here for the inauguration, which was held 16 years to the day after General Pinochet relinquished power.
The United States was represented by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived late Friday after saying that Washington was looking forward to an "excellent relationship" with the Bachelet government.
During her stay in Chile, Ms. Rice is scheduled to meet with several Latin American leaders, including Bolivia's new populist president, Evo Morales, who took office in January.
Mr. Morales is an ally of the Bush administration's most vocal critic in the region, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, who is also here but will not meet with United States officials.
Mr. Morales, a onetime head of Bolivia's coca growers' union, has complained of what he called "threats and intimidation" by the United States against his government after Washington announced it was cutting $500,000 in military aid to Bolivia.
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Peace just a breath away, says Sharon Stone
Mar 20 11:12 AM US/Eastern
A peaceful co-existence between the peoples of the Middle East is but a breath away, Hollywood star Sharon Stone said after a highly publicized visit to Israel.
"It feels to me that we have an opportunity ... to choose understanding in a new way," she told a press conference in Paris when asked about her trip.
"And it really is just a breath. It's just an agreement that's just a breath. We are not far apart. We can choose to have this alternative kind of growth that is a collective nuance of understanding.
"We are just that breath away from a peaceful co-existence," she added after her visit to Israel as a guest of the Peres Center for Peace, a foundation run by Nobel laureate and former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres.
Stone, 48, who visited several projects aimed at promoting peace, including a kindergarten for Israeli and Palestinian children in Jaffa, was also photographed praying at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest Jewish shrine.
Stone, who is also an ardent champion of women's rights, was in Paris ahead of the release of her latest film "Basic Instinct II".
She told journalists that she was delighted that women were stepping up to take their place in the world, taking on new jobs to which they brought something unique, "their feminine instinct."
"This is a new and very exciting time for women, because women by their very nature are creative and not destructive. And this is an extraordinary and important thing that we can bring into a world that awaits the opportunity for peace."
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"Men are Dogs", says Sharon Stone
Contact Music
February 9, 2006
Hollywood beauty SHARON STONE is glad to be single, after enduring countless relationships with "unbalanced" ex-boyfriends.
The BROKEN FLOWERS actress, 47, has been married and divorced three times, to PHIL BRONSTEIN, MICHAEL GREENBERG and GEORGE ENGLUND JR.
Stone admits she tends to be romantically involved with troubled men and likens the male sex to "dogs".
She says, "All the exes in my life either had an offbeat mother or underwent some kind of childhood crisis. They were unbalanced, looking for parental guidance and they see me as the mother figure.
"I think all men are dogs. I honestly do. You know every man starts barking sooner or later.
"At least my character in BASIC INSTINCT has the good sense to kill men afterwards, so they won't go around sprouting nonsense."
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Did Women Once Rule The World?
By William Bond
In recent years archaeologists have increasingly found more and more evidence of the possibility of a Matriarchal age in the past. Yet we do not hear about this in either the mainstream media or in the
alternative press. Yet if what is being discovered now is true, we will have to re-write ancient history and rethink what is the true nature of human beings. Because what archaeologists are now discovering suggests that in the stone age we were not the savage brutes as portrayed in academic speculation. But we were in fact peace loving people who worshipped an ancient deity called the Great Mother. Recent archaeological evidence shows that the history of war and violence only began long after civilization got started.
The concept that women once ruled the world in ancient times is nothing new. It got started by a scholar called J.J Bachofen (1) in the 19th century. He brought together all the evidence of matriarchy in ancient times then available. He was strongly criticized for this by other scholars who dismissed and discredited his work. Yet in spite of this, his work was to inspire the scholars James Frazer to write his famous book, "The Golden Bough". It also influenced Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels who publicly praised Bachofen's work. As well as the famous psychologist Carl Jung who developed from it the theory that the ancient Great Mother was a very important archetype in the collective unconscious. (2) In spite of the condemnation of Bachofen the controversy wouldn't go away. Other scholars in the early 20th century also wrote about matriarchy like Robert Briffault,(3) Jane Harrison (4) and Dr Margaret Murray.(5) But this argument was kept very much within academic circles. Then in the 1940s the poet Robert Graves wrote his book, "The White Goddess" which was the first attempt to bring this argument to the general public, even though it was a very complex book. Then on the wave of the feminist movement of the 1960s and 70s feminist scholars like Merlin Stone (6) and Barbara G. Walker (7) also continued to dig deep into ancient history to find more evidence of matriarchy in ancient times.
After the second world war archaeologists started to make finds that was also supporting the idea that there was a matriarchal age in the past. This evidence was again dismissed by academics but feminist writers like Elizabeth Gould Davis (8) who was brave enough to directly claim that women did once rule the world. And Riane Eisler (9) who kept strictly to feminist dogma and claimed that in the matriarchal age the sexes were equal. But the biggest change in recent years is of archaeological evidence that supports the ancient Golden Age myth. That has been written about in ancient Greek Legend, by the Taoist Chinese, and even in the Bible in the story of the Garden of Eden which comes from a Mesopotamian Golden Age legend. In fact most ancient cultures all over the world have a Golden Age myth of some kind.
Up until recently modern academics have rejected these legends as pure myth. Not only do they sound too good to be true, but recorded history shows a different story. It seems that the further you go back in history the more brutal and violent, men seem to behave. For instance to see gladiators fighting to death as a sport like in the Roman games would be unacceptable in every society today. Though it has to be admitted we still see war, genocide and torture in our modern world. So it has been assumed by archaeologists and scholars that people in pre-historic times must of been even more brutal than people in historic times. The only findings that contradicted this was Palaeolithic cave art, found in France and Spain, which was so well executed that it undermined the belief that Stone Age people were ignorant brutes (10). In fact Archaeologists at first refused to believe that these paintings could possibly made by Stone Age people, and it was only modern dating techniques that convinced them. Also the amount of feminine images found in both Stone-age and Neolithic sites showed that Stone age people may have other things on their mind other than violence. But academics dismissed these finds as being part of a fertility cult and never took them seriously. During the second half of the 20th century archaeologists dug more and more into Neolithic sites and too much feminine imagery was being found to be lightly dismissed. And they began to find evidence that turned the idea that we were brutal savages in pre-historic times, on its head.
In the 1960s a archaeologists called Mellaart lead a team to excavate a site in Anatolia in Turkey. This site turn out to be the oldest city ever discovered (11). Called Catal Huyuk it goes back over 9,000 years. What was discovered goes against all assumptions archaeologist have about people living in Neolithic times. They couldn't find any fortifications to defend the city or any weapons of war. Neither could they find signs of violence committed on people buried in graves. It was also a city full of feminine imagery to the degree that Mellaart was forced to say that the people worshipped the Ancient Great Mother.
So unsettling was these discoveries that the site was closed down for thirty years and the academic world ignored the implications of this find. Because the prevailing view was that the first civilizations were created by warrior tribal leaders who conquered other tribes and then had to build fortifications and organize the people to defend himself. So to have the oldest city ever discovered that didn't have any sign of fortifications, weapons of war or signs of violence greatly contradicted this theory. As in many cases in science when new facts opposed a very popular and fashionable theory then it was the facts that are ignored until enough facts are produced to make the fashionable theory untenable. So most academics chose to ignore this find except one archaeologist, Mariji Gimbutas, who was brave enough to challenge the accepted wisdom of the academic world.
She was to say boldly:
"Archaeologists and historians have assumed that civilization implies a hierarchical political and religious organization, warfare, a class stratification, and a complex division of labour. This pattern is indeed typical of androcratic (male dominated) societies such as Indo-European but does not apply to the gynocentric (mother/women-centred) cultures described in this book. The civilisation that flourished in Old Europe between 6500 and 3300 BC and in Crete until 1450 BC enjoyed a long period of uninterrupted peaceful living which produced artistic expression of graceful beauty
and refinement, demonstrating a higher quality of life than many androcratic classed societies." (12)
The late Marija Gimbutas was digging in another Neolithic sites in Achilleion, Thessaly in Greece and also found finds, of feminine imagery and no sign of violence and warfare. Also in her books and
scientific papers she highlight the Neolithic findings that archaeologists had made at Lepenski Vir and Vlasac in Northern Yugoslavia. As well as the Neolithic findings by Soviet scientists in Bulgaria, Romania, Moldavia, and the Western Ukraine. Western archaeologist had made similar finds in Crete, Cyprus, Thera, Sardinia, Sicliy and Malta. All showing peaceful societies that worshipped the Great Mother. Yet archaeologists chose to ignore these findings, because they contradicted the belief of the time that civilization was started by warrior leaders. It was only Gimbutas who was brave enough to take these finds seriously and she became a very controversial figure.
Her work was for a long time forgotten and dismissed. But in more recent times other archaeologists also made similar finds. In the excavation of Indus Valley civilization in Pakistan again archaeologists could find no signs violence or weapons of war (13). The same is true of Caral in Peru the oldest city ever discovered in South America, going back to 5,000 years. Given the violent history of later South American civilizations with mass human sacrifice, archaeologists expected to find the same thing. But no matter how hard they looked they couldn't find any evidence of human sacrifice, warfare, fortifications or any other indication of violence. And they had to conclude that this civilization existed in peace for thousands of years. It seems that Caral wasn't just a isolated city, as archaeologists found trading good at this site from all over South America. Demonstrating it was the centre of a vast trading network that covered most of this continent. Which suggested that not only did Caral lived in peace, but this was true for the whole of South America at the time. (14)
The overwhelming evidence of these finding have made more modern academics wonder if Mariji Gimutas might be right after all. Some archaeologists are now supporting her like Richard Rudgley in his book "Lost Civilizations Of The Stone Age", and his TV series "Secrets Of The Stone Age".
So what is the implication of these findings?
As Richard Rudgley points out 95% of existence as humans is in pre-historic times. Yet we know so little about this time, it is only from the tools, paintings and carvings found in excavations can we get
understanding of what life must of been like then. All carved and painted images found of human beings found in the Stone-age are overwhelmingly images of women. What Marija Gimbutas shows is that most of these images celebrate the whole process of birth from the sex act to breast feeding. It seems in prehistoric times menstruation, the vagina, the sexual act, giving birth, and breast feeding was seen as something divine, holy and sacred. This is in contrast to historic times where menstruation became taboo and unclean in many societies. The sex act also become sinful and dirty. It was also claimed that children were born in sin because they were born of
women, and even breast feeding become shameful, as even now many women are reluctant to breast feed in public.
This is supported by the findings of Gimbutas who showed that the downfall of many of the peaceful Goddess civilizations was caused by violent patriarchal tribes invading them from the north. So it
suggests that it was the invention of war that ended the last Golden Age. Where the new rulers behaved like Mafia bosses in imposing a reign of terror on the people to control them, and started a protection racket that was in effect the first taxation. Making the rulers very wealthy and forcing poverty onto the people. Who now had to, not only to work to feed and shelter themselves, but they had to work to feed the new rulers and their armies, as well as build them palaces and fortifications, and make arms and luxury goods. This is a clear case where men like Adam had to work by the sweat of their brow. While the new rulers encouraged men to no longer respect women and
make them their slaves.
This is clearly seen in the contrast between the findings of the Neolithic age where we see a predominance of feminine images, and no evidence of warfare and violence. With the later iron age were we find more than anything else images of wars, violence as well as the glorification of kings, rulers, conquest and wealth. Archaeologists in the iron age also find graves where people have clearly been put to death through violence. We also have the first myths of the hero who conquers other nations. As well as male gods who begins to lay down strict laws and punish those who dares to disobey them.
Now evidence of matriarchy doesn't only come from the past, the shocking fact is that the general public are completely unaware that there are many matriarchy communities that have survived up until the present day. The biggest is the The Minangkabau people in Western Sumatra and numbers about 4 million people and is the largest and most stable Matriarchal community in the world today (15). In China there are also Matriarchal community (16, 17). In India there is a region called Kerala (18) which again is matriarchal and has a reputation of being a well run, stable and prosperous area. There is evidence of matriarchal communities that survived in Africa up until colonial times (19). There are even American Indian tribes that are still Matriarchal (20). I have been informed that there are over 150 matriarchal communities all over the world but you never hear about this in either the mainstream or alternative media.
So if we are looking for a conspiracy we have to wonder why all these facts have been kept concealed and covered up for so long. From the time when Bachofen first put forward the idea that there once was a matriarchal age in the past it seems that the establishment have worked very hard to conceal this fact. To the degree of destroying archaeological sites. In Malta there is a very large Neolithic Goddess temple. The first archaeology done on this temple was done by a Roman Catholic priest. His effort included rubbing off important and irreplaceable wall painting from the temple walls. Then digging up the temple floor and taken away all archaeological evidence, which has now mysteriously disappeared (21). This behaviour is not unusual, when the Christian Church or the state of Israel finance archaeological excavations in the Israel what they find fits in with what is written in the Bible. But excavations carried out by universities who do not have any affiliation to the Christian Church or the state find something completely different. For instance in the homes of ordinary Jews of two thousand years ago and older they find statues of Goddesses. The evidence is that the ordinary people of Israel were still worshipping the Goddess Asherah up until the Roman occupation.
Suppression of evidence to do with matriarchy and Goddess worship goes back even further than this (22).
Dr Margaret Murray done research on the witch hunts in medieval Europe. What she discovered wasn't that the witch hunts were started by hysteria as commonly believed. But was a ruthless campaign by the Christian Church to destroy a Goddess religion that still existed among the peasant class. Going back even further when both the Christian Church and later on the Moslems became state religions, the first thing they done was to destroy as much as possible all ancient knowledge. As feminists scholars have pointed out there main targets have been Goddess Temples and female scholars of the time. It seems that from then on all evidence of a matriarchal age in
the past has been suppressed or destroyed.
The reason for this is not hard to work out. If people in the last matriarchal age were worse off than people in historic times there wouldn't be a problem. Rulers in historic times could point to the fact that people are better off under their rule than people in the ancient past. But if the opposite is true then there is a real problem. If it become general knowledge that people in our matriarchal past were
better off than people even today then that would become political dynamite. Because people then would ask the obvious question, "would we all be better off if we similar society as we had in Neolithic times?" That is to say a society that respected feminine values rather than masculine values (23). This could create a world wide social revolution that would greatly undermine the power of our present ruling
elite.
So the ruling elite does have a very good reason to suppress and destroy these facts. Graham Hancock recently has attempted to get archaeologists interested in the possibility that there is ancient cities under the sea that was flooded by the melting of the ice of the last ice age. And was greatly puzzled that these archaeologists showed no interest in this. But if the ruling elite are aware that more than likely these ancient cities were ruled by women they would have a very good reason to not want archaeologists poking about these sites. Because finding indisputable proof that women did once rule the world is political dynamite and could start and political revolution that would sweep away the power of our present ruling establishment.
End
References:
1. Bachofen, J.J. Myth, Religion And Mother Right
2. Gabon, W. Elinor The Once And Future Goddess
3. Briffault, Robert The Mothers
4. Harrison, Jane Prolegomena To The Study Of Greek Religion
5. Murray, Dr Margaret The Witch-Cult In Western Europe
6. Stone, Merlin When God Was A Woman
7. Walker, Barbara G. The Women's Encyclopaedia Of Myths And Secrets
8. Davis, Elizabeth Gould The First Sex
9. Eisler, Riane The Chalice And The Blade
10. Rudgeley, Richard Lost Civilisations Of The Stone Age
11. Mellaart J. Catal Huyuk: A Neolithic Town In Anatolia
12. Gimbutas, Marija The Civilisation Of The Goddess
13. Great Civilisations, The Indus (TV program)
14. Horizon, The Lost Pyramids Of Caral (TV progam)
15. Sanday, Peggy Reeves Women At The Center: Life In A Modern Matriarchy
16. Abendroth, Heide Göttner The Mosuo as a Living Matriarchal Society
17. Cai Hua A Society Without Fathers Or Husbands
18. http://www.hinduismtoday.com/1996/2/#gen169
19. Meyerowitz, Eve The Akan Of Ghana. The Sacred State Of The Akan
20. Tile, Karin E. Kuna Crafts, Gender And The Global Economy
21. Hancock, Graham Underworld: Flooded Kingdoms Of The Ice Age
22. http://www.suppressedhistories.net
23. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DivineGoddess
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Men Prefer Sexy, Smart UnStepfords, Yes, Really
Date: 08/04/04
By Rivers and Barnett
Do men really want women in traditional roles? Our commentators debunk that. The most happily married women, they say, are those who think for themselves and pay their own way.
WOMENSENEWS)--The traditional wife is back in vogue--at least in the media.
Critics hector Teresa Heinz for not gazing adoringly enough at her husband John Kerry. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd complains, "Her attention rarely seems to light on her husband when she's at a microphone with him."
And, of course, there's the much-written-about revival of "The Stepford Wives," in which submissive, robot-like women cater to their husbands' every whim.
But, in fact, do men want robotic, accommodating women? Do women want older "provider" males who will support them in a '50s country-club lifestyle? Do women put their marital happiness at risk when they earn a good paycheck?
No, no and no are the answers.
A number of studies published in the past few years have found that while "Stepford" may be good for a few chuckles in a movie, it's far off the mark as far as most men and women are concerned.
Education Adds to Allure
In fact, if the movie were realistic, the husbands would not be turning their wives into robots. They'd be helping them finance their way through grad school. Research shows that today, the more education a woman has, the more likely she is to be married and the less likely she is to be attracted to a man on the basis of his earning power. In fact, mate selection is now more of a two-way street and men, in turn, are freer from the financial pressures that used to be the primary qualifier for any bachelor seeking a wife.
Once upon a time it was said that "men don't make passes at girls who wear glasses." In other words, a woman who was too smart and too educated would be a flop at finding a husband. That's all changed. Now, men are becoming more likely to select as mates women who have finished their education, forsaking youth for earning capacity. Men today are not prisoners of past behavior by males. They are much more flexible.
Paychecks Make Marriage Work
Men's mate preferences change when situations change. Today, a woman's paycheck may be more appealing than her perfectly-baked brownies. Men's wages have been stagnant or declining for 15 years now, and the "family wage" of the industrial age has been replaced by the job insecurity of the global age.
Most couples require two paychecks to stay in the middle class, a math lesson that is not lost on men.
Judge Richard Posner, author of a book on the economics of mating, "Sex and Reason," suggests, "economics is not divorced from mate selection. People change their behavior as costs and benefits change."
J-Date, the popular online national dating service, automatically requests information on women's incomes, because their male clients ask for it.
Mary Balfour, director of Drawing Down the Moon, an executive dating agency based in London, says that college-educated and professional men in their 20s and 30s now want women who match their intellect and earning abilities. "It is only those in their 50s and 60s who tend to take a deep breath when introduced to powerful women," she says.
Many Wives Earn More
Today, more than 42 percent of married women in the United States earn more than their husbands.
According to Stepford theory, these couples should be sexually frustrated (especially the men) and highly divorce-prone. Not so.
Unlike the threatened Stepford men, modern husbands are not turned off by women who can succeed at work. Women's earning power does not appear to get in the way of pleasure. Psychologist Janet Hyde conducted a year–long (1996) longitudinal study of 500 couples. She found that couples who said they had the most rewarding intimate lives were those in which both partners worked and experienced high rewards from their jobs.
If they were in the real world, married couples in Stepford would find they were paying a huge financial penalty for their hubby-earns-most-and-best approach. The median household income gap between single-earner and dual-earner couples has been steadily widening and in 2001 the two-income couples earned a staggering $30,500 more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Despite movies such as the "The First Wives' Club" and the emergence of "displaced homemaker" as a job-seeking category to which a slight sense of desperation adheres, we still tend to think that the traditional homemaker, safely behind her white picket fence, has the most stable marriage. Not so.
A 1999 nationally representative sample--meaning it mirrors the population as a whole--of 4,405 couples found that divorce was more likely when a woman has no earnings than when she brings home a paycheck. In particular, the marriage of a woman with no earnings was more than twice as likely to dissolve as that of a woman who had a paycheck.
Having no income can be risky for a woman, and not just in the stability of her marriage. A wife who drops out of the work force and stays out for a long time will never make up that lost economic ground, even if she returns to the work force. Worse, if her husband's income starts to slip--an all too common event these days--the couple can be in trouble, both financially and emotionally.
Still, the media can't get over their infatuation with traditional women, whether the subject is the wives of presidential candidates, women at work, or the Stepford movie. The only antidote is correct information, which is sadly in short supply.
Dr. Rosalind Chait Barnett of Brandeis and Caryl Rivers of Boston University are the authors of the forthcoming "Same Difference: How Gender Myths Are Hurting Our Relationships, Our Children and Our Jobs," to be published Aug. 17 by Basic Books.
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FEMALE ADVANTAGE
Style Magazine
February 2006
Women head up eight of the country's top 10 advertising agencies, a unique statistic in global
industry terms, and one that celebrates their talents and the nation's continued vigour for putting women at the top.
They're all different, but their intentions are instinctively the same - to mould the perfect womb for
creative babies to flourish. Of the women that head up South Africa's top advertising agencies, come are barefoot soft and others are cigarette hard. Some pound the desk when making a point, one has a side server topped with single malt whiskies and another built a climbing wall for her employees. This is a woman's way of running a business in a gorily competitive environment. That is, to be all-inclusive and nurturing, while always knowing exactly when, where and why to accept and subject responsibility, there is little ego in their negotiations, only visceral intuition.
One thing instantly recognizable in their unity is the prancing passion they have for their work. All the
women STYLE spoke to, whether it was during a 7.30am breakfast or at 5pm on a Monday, behaved as though they might just burst into a half-marathon right there and then, and coax you into joining them, such is the scale of their infectious enthusiasm.
However, in an industry where clients pick your pitch before handing over millions of dollars in the belief that they'll get returns, rapturous reverence for your job is only one requirement for great leadership. When you're in charge of a company that originates ideas from temperamental creatives and sells them while they're still as intangible as air, you not only need to know everything about the beast you're dealing with, you have to be able to encourage it, lay it down, and make it obey. These girls are good at that.
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Schools Face Shortage of Male Teachers
Korea Times
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Four out of five newly-recruited teachers at middle and high schools this year are women, accounting for about 80 percent of the total.
The female dominance is expected to accelerate due to a shortage of male teachers at secondary schools as well as primary schools, having a negative effect on school education.
According to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 4,343 women have been hired as teachers, accounting for 80.3 percent of 5,409 new teachers.
However, new male teachers represent just 19.7 percent or 1,066.
It is the first time for newly-recruited women teachers to surpass 80 percent at middle and high schools this year, higher than the ratio of new female teachers at elementary schools.
Concerning elementary schools this year, the number of males stand at 1,692 or 21.7 percent of 7,796 newly-selected teachers, while 6,104 females became teachers, accounting for 78.3 percent.
The ministry said that a higher number of female teachers than male teachers at middle and high schools can be attributed to a large female student population preparing for teacher qualification exams after graduating from colleges.
However, education colleges, which are designed to train elementary school teachers, are expected to maintain the gender-balanced number of students as they have a quota system for male students from the start in the admission procedures.
The ratio of all women teachers working at elementary schools has been on the rise from 66.4 percent in 2000 to 70 percent in 2004.
Last year, the female teachers’ ratio reached 71 percent.
Meanwhile, the ratio of women teachers working at middle and high schools soared from 42.6 percent in 2000 to 49.5 percent in 2005.
Critics said that it is not right for education, as the lopsided gender ratio of teachers might have a negative emotional effect on students in school activities.
A ministry official said that there has been no research supporting possible problems or side-effects resulting from a high number of female teachers at schools.
``Some critics argue that a quota system for males should be introduced, but the educational system has yet to deal with female teachers’ domination from the perspective of gender equality,’’ he said.
