Are Men Obsolete?: The Munk Debate on Gender

Hanna Rosin · Maureen Dowd · Caitlin Moran · Camille Paglia

Feb 2014 · House of Anansi

About this ebook

For the first time in history, will it be better to be a woman than a man in the upcoming century? The twelfth semi-annual Munk Debate pits Hanna Rosin and Maureen Dowd against Caitlin Moran and Camille Paglia to debate one of the biggest socio-economic phenomena of our time — the relative decline of the power and status of men in the workplace, in the family, and society at large.

Men have traditionally been the dominant sex. But now, for the first time, a host of indicators suggests that women not only are achieving equality with men, but are fast emerging as the more successful sex of the species. Whether in education, employment, personal health, or child rearing, statistics point to a rise in the status and power of women at home, in the workplace, and in traditional male bastions such as politics. But are men, and the age-old power structures associated with “maleness,” permanently in decline?

In this edition of the Munk Debates — Canada’s premier debate series — renowned author and editor Hanna Rosin and Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Maureen Dowd square off against New York Times–bestselling author Caitlin Moran and academic trailblazer Camille Paglia to debate the future of men.

With women increasingly demonstrating their ability to “have it all” while men lag behind, the Munk Debate on gender tackles the essential socio-economic question: Are men obsolete?

Ratings and reviews

I haven't read the book but I don't need to to write a review about it and neither do you. This book is disgraceful. It deserves to be condemned from the synopsis alone as the tone of the latter and, therefore (one is left with no choice but to deduce), the former, are stone cold, aloof and alienating on the topic of men's well-being -- as if the very concept of our humanity as males was somehow risible and that anything we suffer is only cause for amusement or, better, celebration -- what some have simply called feminist triumphalism... because that's exactly what it is... and it can only be described thus because feminism is categorically a hate movement. So this is males' avowed enemies making their victory lap. The fact that this isn't blindingly obvious to everyone and doesn't precipitate instantaneous, universal condemnation is proof of feminism's most insidious success: that of having persuaded every last one of us that maybe males and, indeed, maleness itself, really are evil.

About the author

HANNA ROSIN is a senior editor at The Atlantic and author of the definitive book on the decline of men and maleness in modern society, The End of Men.

MAUREEN DOWD is a New York Times columnist and has received the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary. She is also the author of the bestselling book, Are Men Necessary?

CAITLIN MORAN is a British broadcaster, critic, columnist, and author of the international bestseller How to Be a Woman.

CAMILLE PAGLIA is a professor and social critic recognized as one of the world’s top one hundred public intellectuals by Foreign Policy and Prospect.