Famous Feminist Bumper Sticker: “A woman needs a man, like a fish needs a bicycle”

In the 60’s there was a bumper sticker popular among feminists, “A woman needs a man, like a fish needs a bicycle.” The meaning seemed to be that women could stand on their own two feet and take care of themselves without needing a man to protect and provide. There was also the clear suggestion that men are superfluous. One feminist friend seriously suggested that the world would be a better place if we eliminated most of the men. She reasoned that a few could be kept for breeding purposes. Without men, the world would be a much safer and healthier and more enjoyable.

The idea that men are no longer needed and could be eliminated, although popular among the small group of radical females, didn’t catch on. Most women and all men just shook their heads and snickered. Few people took the notion of male decline very seriously. Sure, women were advancing and making strides in the world of academia, business and politics. But it was still a man’s world and would likely be into the foreseeable future. Now, the question of men’s position in the world has been re-introduced and it is men who are doing the asking. Why are we here? Are we useful? Is there anything unique that men have to offer?

Look around at the myriad bugs, bees, plants, and animals. Everything has a place in the web of life. When an individual animal or a species no longer is adapted to its environment, it is in danger of dying. Men and women have shared the planet since humans first evolved because they each had a unique function to play in the perpetuation of the species. Without a purpose we lose the will to live. Are men still useful? Not everyone believes we are. “With the advent of sperm banks, in vitro fertilization, sex sorting techniques, sperm independent fertilization of eggs with somatic cells, human cloning, and same sex marriages,” Meryn warns, “it is also reasonable to wonder about the future role of men in society.”

In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir wrote the book, The Second Sex. In it she described a period when women’s lives were restricted and men enjoyed the freedom to advance on the world’s playing fields. Women were seen as mothers and homemakers and those who wanted to work outside the home were often seen as “less than” a complete woman. Males ruled the workplace, government, and academia. Since bringing home the bacon was seen as much more important than raising children, the men were given greater respect after work as well. His home was his castle and he was king. It was a time when “father knows best” and “what is good for General Motors is good for the nation.”

But as Bob Dylan sang, “the times, they are a changin.'” One of the most perceptive researchers studying the future of men and women is anthropologist Helen Fisher. After studying men and women around the world she concluded that the balance has shifted significantly in the 56 years since de Beauvoir wrote her book. She reports these findings in her book The First Sex: The Natural Talents of Women and How They Are Changing the World. She quotes historian Gerda Lerner who says, “We stand at the doorway of what may become an age of women.”

Fisher uses her considerable talents to survey the world of the 21st century and concludes that women will increasingly find their talents and skills being useful while men, unless there is considerable change, will find themselves to be falling farther and farther behind. For instance, she finds that the differences in the way males and females think will favor women. She says that women more regularly think contextually. They take a more “holistic” view of issues. Men, on the other hand, tend to compartmentalize their attention. Their thinking is more channeled. In a world that is becoming increasingly complex, where context is everything, men are at a considerable disadvantage.

After traveling around the world, Pulitzer Prize winning author Thomas L. Friedman concluded that the world is flat. By that he means that cheap, ubiquitous telecommunications have finally created a truly global market place. We no longer have a hierarchy where one or two superpowers rule the world, but now countries like China, India, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia are becoming economic superpowers. In his recent book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century he suggests that a number of trends have occurred that have destroyed the traditional hierarchies and have ushered in a new world with a flatter, more equal playing field.

It is a world where our tax returns may as likely be done by someone in India as by our neighborhood accountant. In 2003, some 25,000 U.S. tax returns were done in India. In 2004, the number was 100,000. By the end of 2005, it is expected to be 400,000. “In a decade,” says Friedman, “you will assume that your accountant has outsourced the basic preparation of your tax returns-if not more.”

Jaithirth “Jerry” Rao, a native of Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is one of the new flat-earth entrepreneurs. His firm, MphasiS, has a team of accountants who are able to do outsourced accounting work from any state in America and the federal government. What’s interesting is that Friedman learned that the skills necessary to survive and succeed in the new economy are skills that have been traditionally associated with women. “No matter what your profession-doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant,” Friedman found, “if you are an American, you better be good at the touch-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer, or both.” We see that women’s way is increasingly becoming the business model of the future. According to Edie Weiner, a futurist and co-author of Insider’s category_ide to the Future, “These trends toward decentralization, a flatter business structure, team playing, lateral connections, and flexibility favor women’s way of doing business.”

We are seeing an emerging pattern throughout the industrial world, says Anthropologist Lionel Tiger, author of The Decline of Males. “Men and women may not discern it clearly, but the pattern underlies their experience in industrial society. It is a pattern of growth in the confidence and power of women, and of erosion in the confidence and power of men.”

This is evident in the major shifts we are seeing in the workforce. Women are moving in and men are moving out. Women currently make up 40 percent of the labor force in Europe and the rest of the industrial world. During the last two decades more women have begun to work outside the home almost everywhere in the world, while men’s participation in the labor force has declined.

The cover of the book Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Women and Men by social scientist Andrew Hacker shows a couple from the knees down. One has their feet planted firmly on the ground. The other must lift up on their toes to reach their partner. It’s somewhat shocking and disconcerting to see that the one reaching up is the man in his wingtips.

“An additional subtitle for Mismatch could have been ‘from affinity to estrangement,’ says Hacker. “As women are becoming more assertive, and taking critical stances toward the men in their lives, they are finding that all too many men lack the qualities they desire in dates and mates. And despite bursts of progressive rhetoric, only rarely do men show themselves disposed to change in more than marginal ways. Thus there is a greater divide between the sexes than at any time in living memory. This result will be a greater separation of women and men, with tensions and recriminations afflicting beings once thought to be naturally companionable.