Men Are the New Ball-And-Chain

For my TED talk I watched Hanna Rosin’s presentation on the rise of women in the work force in the past few years. She had some pretty surprising statistics on how women are actually surpassing men in graduation rate as well as the work force. According to Hanna women currently make up more of the job market than men and it is not just in menial jobs. Women are starting to become the majority in a lot of fields. Women are more likely to be managers, and this shift is present in other high powered jobs, which came as a shock to me. I was still under the impression that there were more men in most fields and I think that is because I grew up being taught that the men are the “bread winners,” men “bring home the bacon,” and that women are meant to stay at home with the kids, and I think most of society is still under that impression. I think that while the power dynamic in the working world is starting to shift, it is going to take a while for society to recognize that a sense of equality in terms of the number of women working is the norm. Hanna mentioned that college girls now are starting to think of being a working mother as the expected outcome of their life, which I definitely relate to. I was always under the impression that my life would take a path leading me to a strong career. I’m interested to see how the future generations of women tend. It could be a pendulum and we are in the middle of the swing towards a female majority before shifting back or this trend may continue until stay-at-home dads are the new norm.

                Relating this talk back to Dress for Success is actually pretty interesting. With this whole idea of women surpassing men in the work force the organization’s goal doesn’t quite seem to fit the statistics. However, Hanna mentioned that the middle class is disappearing for men and women and Dress for Success works with the women that are in that lower class. With this whole swing to an era where women are often the “bread winners,” especially after the recession, it will be interesting to see how that lower class will be affected by work done by Dress for Success and similar organizations. With so much support for women who are in a situation where a low class job is needed, along with increasing competition for the low class jobs between men and women, it might lead to a similar shift towards a women run work force that the upper class jobs are experiencing. I think Dress for Success’ goal to have a world with women being financially independent is very attainable and likely with the way the statistics are looking.

The actually presentation part of the talk done by Hanna was pretty good. She sounded like she really understood her information and was very relaxed. The conversational part of speaking that we learned was so important was definitely present. Although, one fault I would say she had was a tendency to look back at the screen pretty often. Her presentation also seemed very geared towards women, and it seemed like most of the audience was women, but this being online it might have been better for her to make it a little more male friendly. She also started talking about the glass ceiling in her conclusion, which I don’t think fit too well since nothing about it had been mentioned in the entire rest of the speech. Her conclusion also again seemed like it was a little targeted towards women. But besides that the talk was very interesting and I would suggest it to others.

http://www.singleblackmale.org/2012/03/12/women-are-right-men-are-the-new-ball-and-chain/