OPINION:
Women have every reason in the world to re-elect President Obama. He has given them virtually everything they want. For reasons incomprehensible, the GOP has failed to recognize or meet the needs of men in today’s gender-reversed world.
Today’s boys, men and fathers are not the boys, men and fathers of “the greatest generation.” They are on the wrong side of virtually all gender gaps — and promising to equalize those gender gaps may well be the GOP’s last real chance to save the House, gain the Senate and salvage the presidency (“Obama widens lead, confidence against Romney,” Web, Sunday).
Here are four areas to consider. In education, boys and men lag far behind girls and women at all levels, from kindergarten through doctoral, and the sex gap is projected to get worse. In occupation, unemployment rates are higher for men than for women, and women earn more than men do in the younger generations. In health, women live longer and have multiple federal offices devoted to their health while men have zero. In divorce, mothers are awarded custody of children about 90 percent of the time, while fathers often are stripped of their fathering role but still are required to pay child support and alimony.
What the radical feminism of the Democratic Party has wrought is not pretty. However, the very extremism of the Democratic gap between the sexes may well hold the prospect for the last votes the GOP may find. Promises to equalize these gaps beginning in January 2013 might motivate more men to support GOP candidates and show up on Election Day.
GORDON E. FINLEY
Professor of psychology emeritus
Florida International University
Miami
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