The End of Men

The End of Men

An article by Hanna Rosin

The article The End of Men is written by Hanna Rosin and focuses on how women are taking over a world which formerly in all regards has been dominated by men and where exclusively men had the right answers. The article is from July/August 2010, and was posted in The Atlantic which is an editorial Magazine concentrating on issues dealing with politics, business, culture, technology etc . The article is written as a reaction to the fact that "earlier this year, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history." (ll.1-2) And with this in mind Hanna Rosin uses her article to inform about the radical change happening in the world.

The writer, Hanna Rosin, is an American journalist and a co-founder of a women's site called DoubleX . She is a writer who very much focuses on issues concerning religion and politics, and in fact she is writing a book on this particular article.

The group of people for whom this article is appealing and interesting is very wide, as the subject is relevant to many people. The article is dealing with one of the most debated issues in the whole world - gender equality, and therefore many people, men and women alike, see the article as newsworthy.

It shouldn't be too difficult for the reporter to engage the reader, as the subject is interesting to a wide variety of people, and therefore touches a lot of different viewpoints and opinions.

Hanna Rosin opens her article by clarifying how couples are "requesting more girls than boys" (l.22) when they wish to get a child. This is something that affects nearly every person in the world, as most of the world's population at one point in their life's would like to start a family of their own. Furthermore she describes how industries are now changing and in addition to that increasing the selection of female workers for the more superior postures. This is of course affecting the male employees, as it is a big threat to them that women are overtaking what used to be their territory. Rosin doesn't use blown up arguments to clarify that women no longer stands in the shadow of men. Instead she uses statistics and suitable examples and thereby logical appeals to prove her point which can be seen in lines 20-23; "In the '90s, when Ericsson looked into the numbers for the dozen or so clinics that use his process, he discovered, to his surprise, that couples were requesting more girls than boys, a gap that has persisted, even though Ericsson advertises the method as more effective for producing boys." This argument is based on numbers from fertility clinics that use Ronald Ericsson's method, and the statement is articulated from the biologist, Ericsson, himself. A biologist who thinks of the man as "the boss" (l.16).

Rosin's feminist side, however, shines through a few times. This is to be seen in lines 127-129; "Up in the Air, a movie set against the backdrop of recession-era layoffs, hammers home its point about the shattered ego of the American man." Further down in the article she again reveals her feminist side, this time in connection with another modern movie with the feminist title She's Out of My League (ll.134-135). Rosin's knowledge doesn't extend so far, and she can't speak on behalf of men. Thereby her arguments fall through and her ethical appeal suffers a blow, but only with these few statements. Hanna Rosin has interviewed the biologist Ronald Ericsson, and he is the only one who represents the male in this article. The elements he is bringing to the article is concentrating on girls being selected over boys when people who wish to have children are choosing the gender of their child as mentioned earlier.

If you compare lines 41-45;