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Wed Jun 19 21:36:04 SAST 2013

Imagine life without men

Jackie May | 08 October, 2012 00:30
Jackie May
Image by: Times LIVE

Ten years ago I walked down a short garden path to the lyrics "You better shape up/ 'cause I need a man/ and my heart is set on you". Now it's up for debate whether I still need the man I married at the end of that path.

Hanna Rosin, a US journalist, has published a book titled The End Of Men. In it she argues that the world may have outgrown its use for men. Her reason: women are doing better at school, at work and in society.

Post the Great Recession, the world is more women-centric, it's the beginning of the end of patriarchy as we know it, she believes. Rosin also writes that the perception of the ideal business leader is starting to shift.

"The old model of command and control, with one leader holding all the decision-making power, is considered hidebound."

The new model, she writes, is called "post-heroic" or "transformational", and it requires leaders to behave like a good coach and channel charisma to motivate others to be hard-working and creative - to behave more like women. To be women, really.

But as her critics are screaming, while it may be the end of men in her home country where this year women have became the majority workforce for the first time, the rest of us are surprised to learn that it is our turn to dominate.

The majority of us, let's be honest, don't feel anywhere near the positions of power in which decisions are made that influence our lives.

Men are on top of the pile in most spheres of our societies. They rape us, they decide what we learn and how we work, and most public policy decisions are made by them. For this to change, we need to stop being victims, more of us need to find our way into positions of power and we need to get men to shape up or ship out.

As for my man, do I still need him? Well, yes. He kindly carries in the groceries, when I ask, and if I beg, he'll bring in my car off the street late at night when I forget it there. I suppose I could technically do these myself. But it's the dog s*** I can't handle. If I had to pick up s***, I would be wretchedly unhappy.

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