If we study the average number of males and females in college today, it may be an indicator of what kind of parenting boys are given. The proportion of males and females in college classes has changed over the years. In the 1970s the proportion was approximately even. Fifty percent of college students were male and 50% were female.
However, since then that proportion has gradually changed. By the 1980s, the proportion was 45% male to 55% female. By the 1990s the proportion was about 40% male to 60% female. And by 2020, the proportion had risen to about about 35% male to 65% female–this according to Forbes. If this trend continues at the same rate, by the year 2050, there will be very few males in college.
The proportion of males to females has also risen among faculties of colleges, where females have overtaken males, and in managerial positions in companies. In the last election, 100 new female Congresspersons were elected. There was also a rise in the number of female Senators. There are more women CEOs of corporations than ever, and more women Deans in universities. The proportion of elementary school tearhers who are female is 90% to 10% male.
In 1993, Ms. Magazine sponsored the first “Take Your Daughter to Work Day,” thereby encouraging parents to support the ambitions of their daughters but not their sons. Later this was changed to “Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” but the damage was already done. Over the years feminists have encouraged mothers to support their daughters over their sons in many ways.
Sons seem to stigmatized these days from birth on. Phrases such as “toxic masculinity” which have become increasingly popular, are tossed around by everybody and probably by mothers of sons and by elementary school teachers laying down instructions for their boy students. Boys are taught that males are biased toward girls and men have oppressed women for thousands of years and now it is the boys turn to step back and take a seat while their sisters excel.
Young men today who come into therapy are often smitten with feelings of inferiority about their masculinity and feel unworthy of women. Young women today complain that there is a scarcity of young men of substance whom they would choose to date. “The guys these days are all weird. Like they are lost. It’s really hard for women to find cool guys,” one of my female clients recently said.
More and more one hears slogans about men leaning in to help women, but not about women leaning in to help men. In the beginning of the feminist movement, women talked about equality. You don’t hear them using that word much anymore. Instead they talk about women’s empowerment. And if men complain about women dominating colleges and businesses, women answer , “They’re just sore losers–they can’t stand it that their male privilege has been taken away!”
Increasingly men are dropping out of college and, in a sense, dropping out of life. They don’t feel anybody cares about them or is listening to them. They don’t want to work for a large corporation because they feel at such companies, dominated by women, the deck will be stacked against them. Instead, many young men are engaged in start-up companies or other independent ventures.
Having taught college for 17 years, I noticed the change in the proportion of males and females and I also noticed a change in personalities. In recent years, male students have become quiet and withdrawn, and their grades are lower. Females are increasingly aggressive and have an entitled attitude. I retired last year because I was attacked in one class by three female students because they I voiced politically incorrect opinions.
What will become of American society and American culture if this trend of leaving boys behind continues? Stay tuned.
Mind Sight 