The Late Great White Male
Dave Landy | November 2009
I worked for one of those really large financial institutions that disappeared in 2008. As the financial crisis mounted, our firm made daily headlines as the stock price plummeted and it approached bankruptcy. During those tense days, employees openly speculated on our future. The day our firm was sold for pennies, a woman on my staff joked: “You better hope you don’t get fired. You’ll never find a job these days. White men are PARIAHS!” At first, I laughed at her comment. But over a year later, that conversation still haunts me. The reason I can’t get it out of my head is because there’s a lot of truth to it. We are pariahs. White Men are the poster children of the financial crisis (namely Alan Greenspan, Bill Clinton, George Bush and the CEOs of every company on the TARP plan). Over 90% of people who lost jobs during this recession are men. For the first time in history women now represent half of the American workforce. We even lost our monopoly on the White House.
For many, including me, this all comes as quite a culture shock. I am aware that nearly all statistics that measure affluence, education, power, and success favor White Males. Most positions of power are dominated by white men: 95% of CEOs in the Fortune 1000 and more than 80% of both the House and the Senate are in the club. Talent and effort aside, my birthright alone will likely afford me more opportunities than others in minority groups. Being born a White Male in America is the equivalent of winning the genetic Powerball lottery.
But now things have changed. We’re Ogres. Bad Guys. We crashed the economy, declared war on other nations, owned slaves. Our legacy is coming back to haunt us. The currency of white men is tarnished. Somebody moved our cheese and we don’t like or understand it. This month, we are going to do an autopsy on the Late Great White Male. We will answer the questions. How did we get here? Is this a good or bad thing? What does the future hold?
Metamorphosis of the Male Gender Role
From feudal times up through the Industrial Revolution, men worked and women stayed home to raise the family. Women were not afforded opportunities of education or vocational training, and ultimately led lives not unlike that of an indentured servant. They worked around the home and were reliant on their husband to provide food, clothing and lodging. In 1900, women only represented 18% of the job market. This is the era in which my grandmothers were born. These two fine women never attended college, worked a day in their lives, or even drove an automobile. When I was very little, I remember asking my grandmother if there would ever be a woman President. Without hesitation, she replied: “No, it will never happen. That job has too much pressure for a woman to handle. Being President is a man’s job.” Such were the views of her generation.
World War II was the event that changed this mindset forever. As men headed overseas, women were encouraged to work. They came out in large numbers: working women soared 57% during the war years. Norman Rockwell’s Rosie the Riveter became a cultural icon of this era and a harbinger of the collective power that was about to be unleashed. Yet after the War, men returned to their traditional jobs and forced women back home. Women represented only one-third of the workforce. It is this time, from the late ‘40s through the early ‘60s that could be defined as the Golden Era of Men. James Brown sums up the era in his classic It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World (his repetition leaving no room for ambiguity) as he recites a laundry list of man’s great accomplishments. The images of this time have been preserved thanks to television, which also grew up during these years. Classic shows like Leave it to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and even Happy Days act like a time capsule. Each portrays this era the same: a middle-class white family, a nice home with a picket fence, Dad with a good steady job, and a picture-perfect Mom baking cookies and espousing family values. However, this age also contained images that weren’t captured on film: Moms searching for more out of life in the form of a job and women enrolling in colleges in record numbers. From these seeds were sown the Woman’s Movement, fertilized by the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. June Cleaver had become passé, and her replacements were unlike any we had seen before - Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, and Billy Jean King. It was Bella Abzug who famously declared “This woman’s place is in the house – the House of Representatives”. Inspired by these new role models, women stormed the American workplace and took their rightful place.
The Women’s Movement changed gender roles forever. In 1983, we were introduced to a new concept that would personify this metamorphosis: Mr. Mom. Mr. Mom is a movie about a Detroit auto engineer (Michael Keaton) who is suddenly unemployed due to the Recession (funny how nothing changes in Detroit). His wife (Teri Garr) gets a job at an advertising agency forcing Keaton to stay home to raise three kids. After initial struggles, Keaton perseveres and becomes the model parent. Not only did the film shine a spotlight on the newly branded stay-at-home Dad, it also trumpeted the 4 million Moms that returned to the workplace in the ‘80s and ‘90s. The role-reversal transformation was at last complete.
During this time, another important event occurred. Women took control of home finances. Nobody is exactly sure why this occurred, but theories are that men were too busy, too lazy, too stupid, or all of the above. Women now make 83% of all consumer purchases, and dominate big-ticket decisions including home furnishings, cars, and vacations. Although it took a long time to catch on, Madison Avenue finally figured it out and now caters to women. The purchasing power of women is ubiquitous but perhaps the most obvious on television. I remember watching the Olympics as a child, and the televised sports were “men’s sports” like hockey and boxing. These days “women’s sports” – most notably figure skating and gymnastics – dominate TV coverage. Why? Because advertisers are willing to pay big money to reach large audiences of women who make crucial purchasing decisions.
Demographic Tidal Wave
OK, so men have lost a significant amount of ground to women in the workplace. But as we deconstruct the White Male, who in their right mind would possibly think that white skin could be a negative factor? Well, I am part of this very small group. I know it may seem difficult to contemplate given the current landscape. However, let’s look at the demographic trends. Whites have always been a very large majority in America. As recently as 1960, they represented 85% of the population. The past 50 years have brought significant change: below-average birth rates and a wave of immigration of people of color have reduced the white population to 66% today. Hispanics now are the largest minority at 15%, followed by African Americans at 14% and Asian Americans at 5%. The US Census bureau is forecasting that this trend will exacerbate and whites will represent a minority (about 46%) of the US by 2050. Most of the growth will be in the Hispanic population, which is projected to comprise 30% of America. Asian Americans are also projected to double during this time, while the percentage of African-Americans is unchanged.
In 1981, long before Freakonomics, Julian Simon wrote a groundbreaking text called “The Ultimate Resource”. Simon’s theory is so simple that it is elegant: human imagination and ingenuity is the ultimate resource, and thus the key to the economic well-being of nations. In short, more people translate into more ideas and products, which results in productivity, growth, and affluence. Thirty years ago, critics laughed at Dr. Simon when he cautioned that China and India would soon become world superpowers. Now we are witnessing the rise of these nations. This same logic can be related to the ongoing rise of our Hispanic population. Large numbers will beget more opportunities. Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court wasn’t an aberration; it is the tip of the iceberg. The glass ceiling for Hispanics has been shattered. Justice Sotomayor fired a shot across the bow of the Washington power structure when she said “Latinas are making a lot of progress in the old-boy network.” She also raised eyebrows (and nearly cost herself the appointment) declaring “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”.
Conclusions
So is the White Male destined for extinction? Well, yes and no. The philosophy that women should be barefoot and pregnant died generations ago. Ward Cleaver’s “Golden Era of Men” in the 1950s is alive only on celluloid. The number of Mr. Mom’s is increasing every day. And the future has reserved a minority spot for whites in this country. Although the stats still paint a rosy picture, the inevitable decline is well underway. It was only 30 years ago that women earned 60 cents for each dollar a man earned. Today, it is 82 cents. While progress can seem painstakingly slow, it is happening. Like beach erosion, it happens a tiny bit each and every day.
Malcolm Gladwell introduced us to the concept of a Tipping Point, which is a moment of critical mass when the momentum for change becomes unstoppable. I believe that we have reached that stage in the evolution (devolution?) of the White Male. White men will someday be just another face in the crowd. Think about how far we have come since our so-called enlightened Forefathers uttered the words “All Men Are Created Equal”.
