I really like alpha males – Hercules is the latest and perhaps greatest example in my line-up. Johannes is another. But these male leaders are not only a dying, but now an unnecessary breed.
Evolution from an industrial to a knowledge economy realizes the day of Hercules – known for strength, dominance, and authority – as fleeting. “Men could become losers in a global economy that values mental power over might,” Business Week argues. The age of force is over.
Issues of dependence and independence, dominance and subordination are largely irrelevant to how emerging young women see themselves, Harvard psychologist Dan Kindlon argues in his book Alpha Girls. “Generation Y is the first generation that is reaping the full benefits of the women’s movement,” he says. “Women corporate leaders blend feminine qualities of leadership with classic male traits.”
Gen Y women have both masculinity and femininity, developing as the best of both worlds. We balance the typically female feeling part of ourselves with the typically male thinking parts. We are powerful hybrids integrating “the intuitive and rational, the tender and hardheaded, the self-sacrificing and self-serving.”
We utilize a “transformational approach that focuses on building a team. The team approach is less hierarchical than the traditional business model. A girl’s primary goal is not to win but to maintain relationships,” Kindlon says.
The way of the alpha girl is the rallying cry for Generation Y. We disdain complex rules and authoritarian structures.
In contrast, men and boys “base their reasoning on how established rules or laws should be applied, rather than on the feelings of those affected by their decisions,” Kindlon reports. “Male children learn to put winning ahead of personal relationships or growth, to feel comfortable with rules, boundaries, and procedures.”
Men and boys with such personality types are not naturally in tune with other people’s feelings, a key to success in the new economy. Leadership that marshals and directs is often observed by young women as part of the dinosaur age.
Gen Y women will lead the new generation to positive and meaningful change. The ascent of women in the workforce will be unprecedented in history, and promises to have far-reaching implications.
We already see more women than men attaining bachelor’s degrees. In 2005, nearly 59 percent of undergraduates were granted to women. By 2050, it is projected that the degree gap will grow drastically.
Jobs are no different. Business Week reports, that “from last November through this April, American women aged 20 and up gained nearly 300,000 jobs, and American men lost nearly 700,000 jobs.” Research also shows that women who are in management make companies more profitable, even among the Fortune 500.
Roles traditionally filled by men – that of lawyers, doctors and managers – are seeing an influx of women. Other male-dominated industries such as manufacturing and construction seem to be perpetually in downturn, while women are found concentrated in upcoming and thriving industries such as education and health-care.
As men are being hemorrhaged in blue-collar, white-collar, and gold-collar jobs, young women are picking up the slack, becoming both the providers and the glue for families.
The new economy is largely dominated by young women who have unique skills, not by men who have been taught to follow the rules.
“Men are less suited than women to the knowledge economy, which rewards supposedly female traits such as sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate,” reports Peter Coy in Business Week. “Men have tended to do better in the hierarchies, following orders and relying on positional power.”
Young men then, seemingly devoid of the meaning and opportunities that once defined them, are left in a prolonged state of adolescence. And this limbo doesn’t bring out the best in young men, columnist Kay Hymowitz argues.
“Men feel threatened by female empowerment,” Hymowitz states in one theory, “and in their anxiety, they cling to outdated roles.”
Today’s young men are “following the line of Peter Pan, ‘I don’t want to grow up.’” Hymowitz argues. “Plus, who needs commitment when there is a fantasy football team league to dominate, the possibility that a gaming product better than the Xbox 360 could be on the horizon, and your live-in girlfriend will have sex with you whenever you want?”
Young men today “suffer from a proverbial fear of commitment,” and this may be the biggest problem – “a tendency to avoid not just marriage but any deep attachments,” leading to a life that is as empty of passion as it is of responsibility, Hymowitz says. For the contemporary guy, it’s “easy to fill your days without actually doing anything.”
The solution? Not a new career, but marriage. Marriage, she says, turns boys into men.
Kindlon agrees. Married men are more successful in work, getting promoted more often and receiving higher performance appraisals than single men. Married men are much less likely to engage in risky behaviors such as drinking heavily, driving dangerously, or using drugs. They are more likely to work regularly, help others more, and volunteer more. Married men also have better immune systems, and are half as likely not to commit suicide.
But women don’t need men like they need us.
“Marriage is generally more beneficial to men than women,” Kindlon reports. “Research found that women who stayed single in their lives seemed to have good mental health, while men who stayed single all their lives did not. Choosing to be single seems to be good for women but not so good for men.”
Role reversal.
Read this author's blog.
Your article offends me. It is no better for women to start this “we are superior” rhetoric than when the men where doing it to us in the 1950s.
Men are graduating from college at lower levels because there is an anti-male bias in grading. William Draves and Julie Coates have been studying this issue for years. (www.smartboysbadgrades.com). Here’s what they have to say on the subject:
“The Answers in Brief:
The underlying reason boys get worse grades and attend higher education in declining percentages is because boys have different biological and neurological characteristics than girls. This means that:
Generations learn differently. Boys learn differently than girls, and today’s boys also learn differently than previous generations of students.
Boys are actually ahead. Because of their neurology, boys are actually ahead in leading society into the new economic age of the 21st century.
Boys are punished for late homework. GPAs are lower because of behavior unrelated to learning and knowledge. Smart boys turn in homework late, and this is also explained by the boys’ hard wiring.”
And if marriage is the solution, I have a question - how many of these highly educated women are going to want to marry these supposedly inferior uneducated men?
My husband and I went to journalism school together 15 years ago. Our approach to our careers has diverted since then - he stayed with journalism, I moved on to marketing. But although we have the same skill set and education, we approach our careers and leadership very differently. And guess what? We make about the same money and have achieved the same level of success. But we’re Gen Xers and we grew up with the attitude that guys and girls are pretty much equal.
If what you say about Gen Y is true, I pity Gen Y women because your pool of potential life partners is pretty bleak. But then again, if you want men to value you, you need to value men.
@ Gen Xpert - I certainly didn’t mean to infer that Gen Y women are superior.
The prevailing paradigm that young Gen Y women look at the world through is one of equality, not through feminism or that they are inferior or superior, but that we’re all equal. Gen Y men are the same, believing in equality of the genders.
I’m not surprised at the research you point to. The research that I read said the same thing; both women and men have strengths and weaknesses.
How marriage plays out with Gen Y will be extremely interesting to be sure. In the research I read, many Gen Y alpha girls want men who are at the same level as them. Others didn’t care. It seems Gen Y women know what history has taught us for centuries; love is inexplicable.
I’m happy you and your husband are happy with your career paths. The point of my post was to present and synthesize many articles and books I had read on the topic about the future of Gen Y and the new economy.
Whether it’s indicative of a positive or negative future, or how far the pendulum will swing back and forth can’t be known right now. But I have faith in Generation Y - both the men and women - that we will change the world for the better.
I’m glad I’m not the only one incredibly offended by this article. If an article was written about how men were much better than women, the author would immediately be villified as a mysogynist pig. Yet, as usual in today’s society, it is OK to male bash as much as you want.
I see nothing in your article that would actually CONVINCE me that what you say is true. You manage to cite a bunch of misleading statistics and quotes by authors who provide nothing in the way of concrete evidence to back up their claims of the impending doom of the male gender. Perhaps if you used some of those “rules and procedures” that you eviscerate men for cherising, your article might present a more cogent argument.
Missed your response, I’m glad you don’t feel that either gender can claim superiority, but the lopsided nature of your article makes it difficult for us to infer that.
@ Andy W - The research is sound. I’m combining articles from a number of sources, yes, but that doesn’t make the reserach less sound, or the statistics misleading just because they are all in one place now.
I don’t feel that presenting the information makes it lopsided to Gen Y women. The research and articles that I’ve read overwhelmingly point to the idea that Gen Y women are thriving in the current environment and Gen Y men aren’t. This doesn’t make Gen Y women superior, but I do believe it’s something to discuss and an important issue which is why I wrote about it, hoping to engage in meaningful dialogue.
Thanks for the comment!
I have a hard time seeing this as a Gen Y issue. The BusinessWeek article that you cited pretty heavily talks about job gains and losses for people over 20. That includes Gen Y, Gen X, Boomers and more. And the specific men referenced in the article are in their 40’s and 50’s.
And there is certainly info that points to an alternative view of how the generations view women in leadership positions - one that easily comes to my mind since I live in a late-voting primary state is the support Hillary Clinton is getting from Boomers (and older).
I think your article is interesting enough to comment on but it would be more powerful if you were actually making an argument rather than combining articles from a number of sources in one place.
The difficulty to confirm research and statistics found on the internet and the confusion between correlation and causation are really just pet peeves of mine, so let’s ignore that so it doesn’t detract from the discussion.
Now you say that Gen Y men believe in gender equality (which I’ll agree, is mostly true). However, one of the authors you cite claims that young men are threatened by this equality and thus cling to outdated roles. Does this mean that Gen Y men don’t actually believe in gender equality? The “outdated gender role” that they most likely would cling to would be that of the “alpha male”, the strong driven leader, the sole provider of the family, but apparently we’re avoiding that as well by being aimless, undriven drifters. But isn’t the delaying of maturity a supposed typical feature of Gen Y in general? Of course, most of the evidence I’ve experienced is contrarian in nature - the Gen Y males I know (myself included) are typically driven, successful, and committed.
As far as marriage goes, I recently read a study (that I can neither cite nor confirm, hah!) that stated alpha personalities in general are more attracted to like-minded alpha individuals. However, relationships between 1 alpha individual and 1 non-alpha individual tend to be more successful and result in more happiness for both parties.
@ Connie - Exactly. Generation Y does not exist in a silo. The BW article you talk about (and there were several I linked to), discusses the current environment that is informing the culture that Gen Y is growing up in and will contribute to. That is why it is important.
And while I agree with you that it’s great Hillary Clinton is a female rolde model, I would argue that Barack Obama is successful with young people precisely because he exhibits the new leadership style - often seen in alpha girls - while Hillary Clinton does not.
Despite being a woman, Hillary is focused purely on winning, not building and maintaining relationships. Clinton is of the old-school dinosaur mold, while Obama speaks to this new leadership style, that happens to be prevalant in Gen Y alpha girls as well.
As far as the notion that I’m not making an argument.. well, I can only say I don’t think others would react so vigoursly if I weren’t.
Thanks for sharing your perspective!
@ Andy W - Many of my statistics also came from the book Alpha Girls which is meticulously researched - and not from the internet.
Anyway, I think you bring up an interesting point. Obviously, we can’t generalize that all Gen Y men are the way Hymowitz desscribes, nor are all women the way that Kindlon describes.
Your comment on marriage is fairly typical of what I’ve read. But Gen Y women, particularly those still in school and coming of age are holding on less to the former point of needing both mates to be equal.
I appreciate you making me think a bit more!
Well, as a young male who is proud and glad to have such traits as an emotional intelligence (that’s why I’m my mom’s favourite I like to think) - as well as very inclined to keep relationships from past friends going into the future - I think this article speaks a certain truth!
Though not all ‘winning’ males show a manliness you speak of, there are a certain breed of well-to-do males that show the supposed feminine side that I speak of, a more emotional and intuitive intelligence which I think you are referring to.
It’s all about a subtle intelligence.
Memo to author: Men are not afraid of female empowerment.
What men are afraid of is the culture that has brought us sports without scores, praise for substandard work, and a desire to make everyone feel good about what they do even if it is not up to par.
Competition and achievement have been replaced with emotionalism. From my point of view, competition brings out the best in people, while emotionalism robs us of productivity and results.
Example: I should not have to have a feel good inclusion meeting with all 956 of the people who may be impacted by every little decision I make. And who are the ones in my world who call for meetings with 956 people in them? Women. End result - nothing gets done because Sally wasn’t allowed to visible and form a committee to decide on what color the font should be on our emails.
Now, GenY boys may not want to grow up - I’ll grant you that. I have hired and fired my share of these folks. That is because they were never taught to grow up. They were taught that they were special and were coddled by their copter parents, and it did not matter what the outcomes were - it was only the effort that counted. Well that is not the real world.
Perhaps the influx of women into new fields is just a result of more equality in hiring and the desire of more women to want those careers. It may also be cheaper to hire new grad women than to keep higher paid male employees with tenure.
And as for fearing commitment, that is really nothing new for men in general, but when you put the high divorce rate together with the very favorable treatment women get in family courts, you can see why the fear might be growing.
Get over yourself. If it is equality you have been fighting for all these years, then leave it at that - equality. But don;t pontificate on why women are better because they respect people’s feelings. At the end of the day, feelings don’t pay the bills - good and prompt business decisions do.
I don’t like to think of myself as either an optimist or a pessimist (the glass is twice as big as it needs to be, dammit!), but I definitely see your point. Of course, we won’t become completely obsolete, but I don’t think you were suggesting that.
I really liked the comment about women becoming more “hybrid” by adopting more stereotypically-male traits. I have noticed that myself (and I love it). At the same time, Gen Y men are also adopting feminine traits, and are also becoming more “hybrid”.
Of course, the college degree gap clearly shows that men have catching up to do. And people raised on gender stereotypes are going to have a hard time, irrespective of their own gender.
I like to think of it as a pendulum. For a very long time, the pendulum arm was stuck far on one side. Now it’s loose and swinging towards the middle. Since it has momentum, it’s bound to overswing in the other direction. But I hope that, ultimately, it’ll settle in the middle.
I found this unecessarily full of hyperbole and extreme opinions.
I would have prefered a more balanced article. One that didn’t make such absolute statements as “women don’t need men like they need us”. A more balanced statement would be “Women gasin certain advantages in marriage while men gain others.”
The whole tone of the article makes me think less of Rebecca and her writing. It may gather a lot of attention (as blogs are supposed to do). But it certainly won’t contribute much to the discussion.
As it was, I
I have actually started reading this book because I believe that the advent of the alpha girl has occurred, but I think it will lead to more equality and not necessarily overpowering of the male workforce like some are inferring. I believe that the point, of the book, was that many of the masculine traits which allow men to advance more easily in the business world are being adopted by women and giving them an slight advantage because, as you said, they have the good masculine and feminine traits. As Torbjornrive said there are many men who are like this also, but the book was focused on the women so I can see why it can be seen as ‘biased’.
Steve, I think when you say “What men are afraid of is the culture that has brought us sports without scores, praise for substandard work, and a desire to make everyone feel good about what they do even if it is not up to par” you are 100% correct but it isn’t just men who are concerned about that, it is women to, I’m one of them. There are men who are intimidated of women, I know first hand, when I took Internal Combustion Engines in college I was told by my classmate that I “de-masculinized” him because I was showing him how do things when it was typically a male dominated course (I was the only girl in the course). I think those men are more common in non gender typical fields though.
The “battle” between the sexes is as old as the human race. Nobody gets over it faster because of the “Women’s Studies” classes so many of us are obligated to take that serve purely to hammer out the fact that women are vastly superior even though they’ve always been treated as inferior. The fact of the matter is that both sexes are equally good. It just so happens that sometimes they’re good at different things.
“Men feel threatened by female empowerment.” This is true, and it’s true because men are competitive and motivated to be the best. That’s why we like competitive sports. Obviously it’s not true that every man is motivated, or that all women are un-ambitious. These are stereotypes that are sometimes accurate, and sometimes not.
Some of the males in our generation may be lacking in motivation. I’m not going to sit around and bemoan the fact that women are going to dominate us. Hey, the fact that some men aren’t well-qualified for life just makes things easier for those of us who are willing to go out there and do what we need to do. Even make commitments.
Interesting about the marriage study. I see no mention of whether the ages of the participants were the same, because if the men who were married were older, they would of course be more likely to receive promotions, raises etc. simply because of their greater experience and time in the market. I’m always tempted to wonder if correlational studies are really a reverse relationship than the conclusion the researcher drew. Maybe in this case the men are married because they’re not doing drugs rather than not doing drugs because they’re married.
I’m as proud of the rise of women in the workplace as the next feminist, but plenty of men — even young men — handle the knowledge economy just fine, thanks. Alpha Males may have gone the way of Betamax, and women ARE indeed changing the workforce, but that doesn’t mean that men are relics.
After reading this drek, I have come to the conclusion that feelings are very important, and the next time something doesn’t go my way at work, I should just cry. That’ll show those mean old men.
Have you ever worked in an office full of women? If so, you would realize that a womans success is typically derailed by other women. The alpha female gets eaten by the pack. Few actually make it through and fewer continue their career for a long uninterrupted period.
Ironically, the book that REALLY started the feminist movement and was the impetus for the formation of NOW was written in the early ’50’s by a MAN - Ashley Montagu (famous anthropologist). In “The Natural Superiority of Women” he outlines the genetic/physiological/psychological strengths and weaknesses of both genders (albeit sometimes with tongue in cheek) - and his conclusions are obvious by the title of his book. I believe its now out of print, but if you can get a copy, its a great read for anyone who wants to understand gender differences and why we are the way we are.
Though I appreciate the optimistic tone of your article, it fails to point out all the inequities with which women still have to put up in their daily lives. There is still inequity in sports - in high schools and colleges, there is still a wage gap, women still comprise a dismal amount of CEOs in this country, and predominantly take up occupations that pay less than traditionally male ones. We’ve made progress, but we still have a long way to go.
Gender roles have so distorted how we view one another that we resort to good, better, best instead of really acknowledging the individual. Men and women are equal. Anything other than that makes no sense. But women are socialized to be one way and men another, and so we turn out differently. But beneath that emotionalism that is forced on a woman, when you truly meet an alpha female, is the heart of a warrior, who will chew you up and spit you out if you get in her way. She’s not better; she’s simply got aggressive human traits, and in reality we are finally seeing what a gender neutral workplace would look like.
I can’t wait until my children, or their children, can shake off this societal gender grooming nonesense and embrace their humanity and human choices, and we can have sensitive boys and daring girls, and it be ok.
Huh.
Equality of gender is a good thing. No one should be judged better or worse just because they have a Y chromosome or not. Sexism is just as bad as racism.
The problem I have with this post is the same as commenter Steve above had.
Sensitivity and intuition can be taken to extremes, and are so more and more often these days. Whether that is due to more women in more powerful roles or not is irrelevant.
American Gen Y is already far too PC. At some point, probably in the near future, there is going to be a massive backlash against that “soft culture.”
Male or female doesn’t matter. Coddling, whether it’s done to children or employees, will destroy us.
I AM OFFENDED! ANGRY MAN! TARZAN BEAT JANE! Tarzan NO understand REALITY of 21st Century! Make Tarzan mad!
Ahhh, the irony of your post. The alpha female should thrive on complex rules and authoritarian structures, not sensitivity, intuition, and a willingness to collaborate that your “research” seemingly exalts. If only this topic were tackled by a male. . . perhaps the selective citation and self-indulgent non sequiturs wouldn’t be so apparent.
Good luck in the work force — I sure hope you’re right and not just self-agrandizing (a truly male trait). In the meantime, I’m going to go kill my soon- to-be-obsolete self — I don’t stand a chance.
Gramatically, and otherwise, it’s guys and gals. Anyone over 18 should not be called a girl. (This is in the comments section, not the blog post.)
This is news precisely because it’s a change in trend, from the past 1000 years. (Argueably, of course.)
“Reverse” descrimination hurts, doesn’t it. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it’s important to have the dialogue.
Personally, I wasn’t offended … at all.
Your mileage may vary.
Reverse discrimination? Perhaps that explains it. . .
Hahaha god thats funny.
That being said I am not sexist by any means, women are very capable and really, amazing.
Men are slightly more dominate than women and make better leaders most of the time. This is not to say women cannot be leaders, but they run the risk of well, being labeled masculine.
You man say men are not “in tune” with feelings or emotions but you would probably be surprised. We simply handle it differently than women
Men have pioneered the human race for thousands of years and using the womens rights movement of the the last 80 to attempt to stifle that fact is simply naive.
Can women contribute? Of course, they were terribly held back for most of humankind and can contribute just as well as a man. Saying otherwise is as stupid as a man claiming that a woman is not capable of doing X Y or Z. Frankly I believe the author knows this deep down inside.
The man described in the article is a stereotypical man. For the record I am a 23 year old professional that does not own an Xbox, play fantasy football or live a Peter Pan life. I work 50 hours a week and take care of myself in the little free time that I have.
Not to be rude, but if I had to wager a guess, I’d say there are some underlying issues that caused this article to be written. The author clearly has something to prove, which honestly would not be the case if she felt a true equal.