Notes that an AA rollback won't make white men successful in the new economy; they should ask women for advice

Fortb Worth Star-Telegram

Sheehy, Gail

English

Washburn University Institutional Repository

'Angry white men' should look to women T he · upreme Court's ruling last week limiting racial preferences in federal programs is one more sign that the nation is in a mood to roll back affirmative action. President Clinton has already laid out an early campaign strategy of offer-ing "sympathy and understanding" to angry white men who resent such pro-grams. A March Washington Post/ABC News poll showed that three out of four Ameri-cans favor cutting back. Even if affirmative action is rolled back, Democratic and Republican politi-cians hould know that it won't cure the anxiety and anger of white men. Regardless of economic cycles, compa-nies will continue to cut back manage-ment to be more productive, and the number of male-dominated blue-collar jobs will keep shrinking. The changing economy will favor workers who are flex-ible and well-educated. Rather than looking for scapegoats, displaced men should learn from those likely to benefit most from the new eco-nomic order: women. In educational achievement, men have been slipping behind in school and college for decades, according to Department of Education studies, while American women of all race have become the best-educated and best-trained in the world. MOLLY IVINS is t.aking some time of! We expeCt her column to resume next week. Gail Sheehy In addition, women have shown more willingness to go back to school later in life. More than a million women over 40 are enrolled in college, according to the Census Bureau, compared with half as many men. Today, Am rican women earn more than half of all bachelor's and mas-ter's degrees. If white men, e peci.tlly older ones,-are at a disadvantage, it's Jilrnly to be because of inadequate education or resistance to the changing demands of the market-place. For the last decade, most new jobs for people with only a high school edu-cation or som college have been in cler-ical, sales and personal-service areas, which are typically considered women's work. This is one reason that a surprising numl;>er of men in their prime are neither working nor even looking for work, according to economists. But it's not just low-status jobs that are opening up for women. In the last 20 years, th number of businesses owned by women have tripled, and today they employ more workers than aI1 the For-tune 500 companies worldwide. The economy favors tho willing to risk going out on their own, and that's often more appealing to women than the prospect of hitting the glass ceiling in a corporation. There is no denying the dislocation men feel. During the last 20 years, the I . \( Tu sday,June20,1995 / Fort WorthStar-Telegram I: median income for men has remained flat or declined (in constant dollars) in every age group except for tho e over 65, while women's rose 18 percent. And for men forced out of a secure position, the loss can be "like a death," as one corporate refugee said to me. Psy-chotherapists say that more and more of their patients are men over 45 seeking help for anxiety and depression. The men who are apt to be worse off are those accustomed to success. Now society is saying: "Sorry, we're downsizing. Here's the package." They are being paid to go away. Often these men must turn to their spouses for financial help, causing strain at home. An executive who "took the package" at Eastman Kodak in 1991 at the age of 51 told me, "My wife goes off in the morn-ing now, and I make her breakfast." Studies show that the higher the per-centage of income that the wife provides, the higher the likelihood of divorce. There is, however, good news for men - or anyone - who must for whatever reason give up their original professional identity. Change often forces people to grow in ways that they never anticipated, as older women who have experienced the dislocation of divorce or the emptying nest have always known. GAIL SHEEHY is author of New Passages: Mapping Your Life Across Time, about how stages of adulthood have changed for men and women. She wrote this for The New York Times. 

Angry White Men' Should Look to Women

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Angry White Men' Should Look to Women

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