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Manning Up How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys

By Kay S. Hymowitz
Basic Books 2011 ISBN: 9780465018420
Contact
communications@manhattan-institute.org
212-599-7000

About the Book

Dudes, guys, geeks, hipsters: Are they men or are they boys? Influential social critic Kay S. Hymowitz shows why lots of people—especially young women—aren't so sure, and why that matters to all of us.

Men in their twenties and thirties are ground zero for two radical shifts in contemporary life: delayed adulthood and an increasingly female-friendly economy. Settling into their careers, marrying, and having children later than ever before, young people are carving out a new "preadult" stage of life.

Women are now the first sex among preadults. They are the majority of college grads, and are taking over new sectors of a recession-battered but still dynamic knowledge economy. From marketing to communications, design to nonprofits, a historic number of high-wage careers are not just open to women, but dominated by them.

And the men? From the outside, preadult men often seem like children, filling their leisure time with video games, Adam Sandler movies, indie bands, beer pong, and the company of inebriated women. But it's not all fun for men, and certainly not any fun for the women who would like them to grow up. With no clear life script, these men don't know what is expected of them either as men or as adults. In the past, dating in the early adult years was largely a means to an end—marriage and fatherhood. No more. Dating can mean a decade or more of miscues, bad breakups, and Match.com dead ends.

Meanwhile, marriage and parenthood can come in myriad forms or be skipped altogether. A biological clock tells women when preadulthood has to come to an end. Men? They have no pressing reason to ponder the sand in the hourglass. Why man up? Even when it comes to having children, women no longer seem to need them.

Thoroughly researched and bursting with radical implications for both present and future generations, Manning Up is the essential book for understanding the dramatic changes that are taking place in the lives of young people across the globe.

About the Author

Kay S. Hymowitz is the William E. Simon Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. She writes extensively on childhood, family issues, poverty, and cultural change in America. Hymowitz is the author of Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys (2011), Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age (2006), andLiberation’s Children: Parents and Kids in a Postmodern Age (2004), among others. She has written for the New York TimesWashington Post, Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, New York Newsday, Public Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, and Commentary.

Hymowitz has presented her work at many conferences, sits on the board of the journals National Affairs and The Future of Children, and has been interviewed on numerous radio and TV programs. Hymowitz holds a B.A. in English literature from Brandeis University and an M.A. in English literature from Columbia University.

Media

Television

Radio

  • Laura Ingraham Show, Talk Radio Network, 3-23-11
  • Janet Mefferd Show, Salem Radio Network, 3-21-11
  • Late Mornings with Jeff Schectman, KVON, 03-18-11
  • Cosmo Radio's Cocktails w/ Patrick, Sirius, 3-17-11
  • Ron Smith Show, WBAL, 3-16-11
  • Thom Hartmann Show, Dial Global Radio Networks, 3-16-11
  • Joy Cardin Show, WPR (NPR), 03-16-11
  • Brian Lehrer Show, WNYC, 03-15-11
  • Whole Living On Martha Stewart, Sirius, 03-11-11
  • State of Nevada, KNPR, 03-11-11
  • Michele Tafoya Show, WCCO, 3-11-11
  • This Morning in Seoul, TBSEFM, 3-10-11
  • Mike Rosen Show, KOA, 03-10-11
  • G. Gordon Liddy Show, Radio America, 3-10-11
  • Wisconsin's Afternoon News , WTMJ, 3-9-11
  • Jamie White Mornings, KBZC, 3-9-11
  • The Current, CBC, 3-9-11
  • Tom Roten Show, WVHU, 03-09-11
  • These Days, KPBS, 03-08-11
  • Michael Medved, Salem Radio Network, 03-07-11
  • Bill Handel, KFI, 03-07-11
  • Martha Zoller Show, GNN, 03-07-11
  • Randy Tobler Show, 97.1 FM Talk, 03-05-11
  • Patt Morrison Show, KPCC, 03-04-11
  • Chris Salcedo & lori Lundin, Talk Radio Network, 3-3-11
  • Alan Colmes Show, Fox News Radio, 03-03-11
  • Denny Smith Show, WIBC, 03-03-11
  • The Michael Graham Show, WTKK, 03-03-11
  • America’s Morning News, Talk Radio Network, 03-03-11
  • Steve Malzberg Show, WOR, 03-02-11
  • The Conversation w/ Ross Reynolds, KOUW, 03-02-11
  • Peter Schiff Radio, WSTC/WNLK,  03-02-11
  • NPR Intern Edition Blog Podcast, 03-02-11
  • Talk of the Nation, NPR, 02-28-11

Articles

Will Women Marry Down?, Kay Hymowitz, The Daily Caller, 04-18-11
Why Men Need Women, Kay Hymowitz, AskMen.com, 03-04-11
Why Are Men Angry?, The Daily Beast, 02-28-11
Chat: Where Have the Good Men Gone?, Wall Street Journal Online, 02-24-11
Note to Angry Guys: Drop the Darth Vader Decor, Wall Street Journal Online, 02-23-11
Where Have The Good Men Gone?, Wall Street Journal, 02-19-11

Reviews

Men May Be Jerks...But Women Are Insane, Heather Wilhelm, RealClearPolitics.com, 3-23-11
Immaturity of today's male tied to rise of feminism, Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe, 3-18-11
Have the men of today forgotten how to grow up?, CBC News, 3-10-11
Kirkus Reviews, 01-01-11
Publishers Weekly, 01-01-11

Mentions

Double X Gabfest: The Little Prince Edition, Jessica Grose, Kate Julian, and Hanna Rosin, Slate.com, 3-17-11
The Western Australian, Alice Nelson, 03-08-11
The Plight of the Weaker Sex, Rich Lowry, National Review Online, 03-08-11 (This article also appears in the New York Post, 3-8-11)
No iPad? No Xbox? And you call yourself a grown man?', Michael Deacon, The Daily Telegraph, 03-08-11
Don't fight female equality, guys - it benefits you too, Rosamund Urwin, The Evening Standard, 03-07-11
Nature vs. Neuter, Adam Carolla, New York Post, 3-5-11

Interviews

Ten Questions with 'Manning Up' author Kay S. Hymowitz, Laura Donovan, The Daily Caller, 03-05-11
Where have all the good men gone?, Zosia Bielski, The Globe and Mail, 03-04-11
Has The Rise Of Women Turned Men Into Boys?, Jenna Goudreau, ForbesWoman.com, 03-03-11