Australia’s first female prime minister is part of a growing trend of women coming to power and men becoming obsolete according to the latest issue of the Atlantic.
“The End of Men” article points out that this is the first year that there have been more women than men in the US workforce. And for men at work the story gets even worse with projections that of the 15 job categories projected to grow in the next decade, only two of them are currently dominated by men: janitor and computer engineer. There are also more women in the US college system and when it comes to children many couples prefer girls to boys.
But not all men are ready to become cleaners and computer geeks. The article also notes that “Only 3 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, and the number has never risen much above that.” And pay equality stills eludes many women with the same qualifications as their male counterparts - “Women ages 25 to 34 with only a high-school diploma currently have a median income of US$25,474, while men in the same position earn US$32,469.” While these blue collar jobs have been disappearing for years, the jobs that replace them could still be “gendered in the pay packet”.