Men and Women
Editor's Digest: A review of recent research and commentary
As the Book of Genesis suggests, from “the beginning” the relationship between men and women has been characterized by both conflict and fruitfulness. The challenge of managing sexual difference continues in the twenty-first century, with competing models of masculinity and femininity, political and religious “gender gaps,” and rapidly changing norms around marriage and family life.
The American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center features an array of studies relevant to the topic:
Young women are abandoning organized religion at rates higher than young men.
Recent trends signal challenges to dating and courtship. One issue: single women and single men have dramatically different views on President Donald Trump.
Young Christian men and women have increasingly different views on abortion as well.
Something to agree on? Young people, men and women alike, believe sexual infidelity is very common.
Joseph Holmes sees clues to the political divergence of young men and women in recent major films. “Art often reveals things about where we’re at that people would rather not admit straight out.”
Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey explore recent findings that “young liberal women are markedly less satisfied with life than their conservative peers.”
Christine Rosen comments on the “tradwife” fad, perceiving “an odd echo of Victorian days,” as “men and women are moving toward a world in which they live in separate spheres.”
A recent study reported at PsyPost finds that men who “intentionally distance themselves from traditional masculine ideals” are more likely to experience poor “psychosocial functioning, including higher levels of distress and anger.”
One celebrity model of masculinity is Andrew Tate. Christopher Rufo sees no promise there. “Tate is to masculinity what pornography is to sex: a degraded form of the original, superficially attractive but profoundly empty.”
Another study indicates that “men, on average, rely more on their romantic partners for emotional support and intimacy than women do,” and therefore “men experience greater emotional and psychological distress following the dissolution of a romantic relationship.”
In an in-depth report, Rachel Sheffield and Delano Squires describe the transformation of American family life and its consequences:
In 1950, married couples comprised 78 percent of all American households. Only 4 percent of children were born to unmarried parents. The typical life script was consistent irrespective of race, religion, or socioeconomic status. Most Americans married in young adulthood, children were born within marriage, and divorce was rare. Today, married couples make up less than half (47 percent) of U.S. households, 40 percent of children are born outside marriage, and the birth rate has reached its lowest recorded level.