A Hollow Victory

~I have some thoughts on the post below The End of Men.

While I certainly applaud much of what is said and take heart from the core paradigm, I have one serious concern. The author blithely tosses out the term 'postindustrial'. And, to invoke the great Inigo Montoya, I think this does not mean what she thinks it means.

The following quote stood out:

“A 2008 study attempted to quantify the effect of this more-feminine management style. Researchers at Columbia Business School and the University of Maryland analyzed data on the top 1,500 U.S. companies from 1992 to 2006 to determine the relationship between firm performance and female participation in senior management. Firms that had women in top positions performed better, and this was especially true if the firm pursued what the researchers called an “innovation intensive strategy,” in which, they argued, “creativity and collaboration may be especially important”—an apt description of the future economy.

It could be that women boost corporate performance, or it could be that better-performing firms have the luxury of recruiting and keeping high-potential women. But the association is clear: innovative, successful firms are the ones that promote women. The same Columbia-Maryland study ranked America’s industries by the proportion of firms that employed female executives, and the bottom of the list reads like the ghosts of the economy past: shipbuilding, real estate, coal, steelworks, machinery.”

I'd say 'ghost' is all too appropriate. These are industries that have been despoiled, or, to extend the metaphor within this paradigm, 'raped and abandoned', by the Alpha Males aka Patriarchy.

So, then, what exactly are women inheriting except the shit? The blue collar jobs that have been wiped out, and the industries they served, were the backbone of the American economy and have not been replaced. And those jobs, along with the white and pink collar jobs that women are now filling in place of males, were and are socially Beta Status.

The Alpha Males, while they may be dying off – which certainly remains to be seen – have gutted this nation and left its near empty and wounded husk for the women to 'nurture'. That is not much of a victory. And the 'postindustrial' world that quite possible looms is a rough and reactionary world where Strong Men would become essential and could 'once again be Men'. I suspect that is its primary appeal to the majority of male 'doomers'.

So the question now is, “What are women going to do with this wreckage that they have been stuck with?” And believe me, that is The Paramount Question.

My long time readers know my answer of course. Whether I'll be able to get all those other women to listen is another story....