Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men Into Boys

Women complain there are no good men left,that men are immature, unreliable, and adrift. No wonder. Masculine role models have become increasingly juvenile and inarticulate: think of stars like Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, or the dudes of the popular Judd Apatow movies. There are no rules for dating and mating. Guys are unsure how to treat a woman. Most importantly, dating in the pre-adult years is no longer a means to an end,marriage,as it was in the past. Many young men today suspect they are no longer essential to family life, and without the old scripts to follow, they find themselves stuck between adolescence and real" adulthood. In Manning Up , Kay Hymowitz sets these problems in a socioeconomic context: today's knowledge economy is female friendly, and many of the highest profile areas of that economy,communications, design, the arts, and health care,are dominated by women. Men are increasingly left on the outskirts of this new, service economy, and take much longer to find a financial foothold. With no biological clock telling them it's time to grow up, without the financial resources to settle down, and with the accepted age of marriage rising into the late 30s or even 40s, men are holding onto adolescence at the very time that women are achieving professional success and looking to find a mate to share it with. A provocative account of the modern sexual economy, Hymowitz deftly charts a gender mismatch that threatens the future of the American family and makes no one happy in the long run.

“Richard Whitmire, author of”

A.J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically "Kay Hymowitz has written a fascinating and important book--one that should be read by every man, woman and man-child in America. So put down your Wii controller, click off the Tucker Max blog, and pick up Manning Up. You won't regret it." Pamela Paul, author of The Starter Marriage "With spot-on detail and zero dogma, Kay Hymowitz has written a smart, incisive analysis of the woes troubling today's young men, oft saddled with the dreary label, 'adultescents.' Anyone interested in the state of the sexes will want to read Hymowitz's wise, accessible and compassionate take." William J. Bennett "Manning Up is an important portrayal of the disintegrating covenant that once existed between the sexes. And few can do this better than Kay Hymowitz. She untangles the complex forces threatening marriage for even the most privileged young Americans." Caitlin Flanagan, author of To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife "In her fascinating, brutally honest new book, Kay Hymowitz describes an unintended consequence of the successes of feminism: the creation of a huge generation of aging frat boys, men who have discovered--in the spray tanned, bikini-waxed wonderland of post-feminism -- a shangrila they are only too happy to inhabit. Freed from the old tests of manhood, such as the ability to marry and provide for a woman and children, they are biding their time, and leaving many of the best and brightest young women wondering, 'where did all the good men go?' Manning Up is an important book for parents, educators and most of all, for today's young women." Neil Howe, co-author of Millenials Rising: The Next Great Generation "Kay Hymowitz is a brilliant observer of cultural and social trends in America. Manning Up moves in a crescendo of accelerating energy from first chapter to last. Any reader who has ever wondered about changing gender roles and the purpose of marriage in the lives of our friends and relatives -- or in our own lives -- will be impressed and amazed. If you are between age 20 and 50, reading this book may cause you to re-plan your own life. Whatever your age, it will certainly cause you to rethink our collective future." Mark Bauerlein, author of The Dumbest Generation "If you're curious as to why university admissions officers have to scramble these days to keep their entering classes at less than 60% female, or if you find that a sports bar on a Saturday afternoon sounds like a high school locker room, Kay Hymowitz's Manning Up provides an illuminating response. It's not because feminism has emasculated men, or because the media parade one man-boy after another (Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, The Man Show...). It's because of the Knowledge Economy. Manhood used to happen through marriage and fatherhood, boys becoming men by assuming caretaking responsibilities, usually by taking jobs in manufacturing. It made them grow up. The Knowledge Economy delays the process. It keeps them longer in school, and many of the jobs it offers favor women (design, communications). Drawing evocatively from films and novels, video games, blogs and research reports, female despair and male slackerdom, Hymowitz derives a fresh and pointed take on the Mars-and-Venus gender gap. This is the startling and persuasive news she imparts, an unintended consequence of the knowledge boom. More prosperity and innovation and media--but at a profound cost to family and society: the immaturity of men." Why Boys Fail "Kay Hymowitz does an exacting job describing the growing flock of man/children we're seeing, and she lays out the disturbing reality of the 'marriageable mate' dilemma that once affected only black women but has now become a broader phenomenon. Not only are there fewer college-educated men to marry, but many of those men who are available are little more than man/children--not anyone you would want your daughters to marry!"

Kay S. Hymowitz is the William E. Simon fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal, where she writes extensively on education and childhood in America. She also writes for many major publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, New York Newsday, The Public Interest, Commentary, Dissent, and Tikkun. A regular commentator in the broadcast media, she earned a Masters of Philosophy from Columbia University and has taught at Brooklyn College and Parsons School of Design. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Women complain there are no good men left,that men are immature, unreliable, and adrift. No wonder. Masculine role models have become increasingly juvenile and inarticulate: think of stars like Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell, or the dudes of the popular Judd Apatow movies. There are no rules for dating and mating. Guys are unsure how to treat a woman. Most importantly, dating in the pre-adult years is no longer a means to an end,marriage,as it was in the past. Many young men today suspect they are no longer essential to family life, and without the old scripts to follow, they find themselves stuck between adolescence and real" adulthood. In Manning Up , Kay Hymowitz sets these problems in a socioeconomic context: today's knowledge economy is female friendly, and many of the highest profile areas of that economy,communications, design, the arts, and health care,are dominated by women. Men are increasingly left on the outskirts of this new, service economy, and take much longer to find a financial foothold. With no biological clock telling them it's time to grow up, without the financial resources to settle down, and with the accepted age of marriage rising into the late 30s or even 40s, men are holding onto adolescence at the very time that women are achieving professional success and looking to find a mate to share it with. A provocative account of the modern sexual economy, Hymowitz deftly charts a gender mismatch that threatens the future of the American family and makes no one happy in the long run.

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