a woman’s world?

Okay, this title is a bit rhetorical: obviously around the world women haven’t achieved equality with men. But in the United States? I left this as a comment, but decided could be its own post:

I think if you compare the highest-achieving men to the highest-achieving women, obv. the men are doing much better. But I’d argue that by almost anymany measures the average woman is doing better with the average guy. You see this most starkly in the African-American community but I’d say it’s true overall as well. Men are more likely to not to attend college, don’t do as well when we’re there and are more likely to drop out once we get there. Boys do much worse than girls in primary and secondary school. Men are four times more likely to commit suicide, much more likely to be homeless, and five times more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. Men are more likely to be victims of murder and violent crime and 10 times more likely to be in prison. Men have higher mortality rates starting at birth and die an average of seven years younger than women. “From the moment of conception on, men are less likely to survive than women,” writes Marianne Legato in the NYT. Men still make more money but have less buying power than women. And this is more opinion than fact, but I think men engage in far more self-destructive activities than women.

I’d say in a lot of ways not only have women achieved real equality (in the United States), they’ve really surpassed men.

Of course I didn’t mention the traditional ways in which women aren’t said to have achieved real equality, the wage gap and the “glass ceiling.” I know I have some high-achieving women among my readers and I am curious to what extent they think these are still issues.

Note that I wouldn’t call this a rant. I’m not arguing that men are discriminated against or face any great injustice in the world. Maybe schools could do a better job of teaching boys, but I’m not an expert in that area. It may just be that women are better adapted to a post-industrial age and we’re naturally evolving toward a matriarchial society, just as hunter/gatherer societies were naturally patriarchal.

P.S. 11/14/06: Men’s health is “abysmal,” according to this story from today’s NYT on health disparities between the genders. “It’s not that we ‘could be’ the weaker sex — we are the weaker sex,” Dr. Robert Tan, a geriatrics specialist in Houston, tells the Times.

P.P.S.: Okay, obv. in a lot of ways it is still a men’s world. Like in terms of access to public space: I feel comfortable running in Central Park late at night, never have to worry about street harassment and have felt fine living in semi-sketchy neighborhoods. And I’m sure there are other male privileges that have never occurred to me.