TEDWomen 2010
Hanna Rosin: New data on the rise of women
Filmed:
Readability: 3.4
1,047,470 views
Hanna Rosin reviews startling new data that shows women actually surpassing men in several important measures, such as college graduation rates. Do these trends, both US-centric and global, signal the "end of men"? Probably not -- but they point toward an important societal shift worth deep discussion.
Hanna Rosin - Journalist
Hanna Rosin isn’t afraid to shine a skeptical spotlight on people’s cherished ideals, whether it’s politically correct dogma or the conservative Christian agenda. Full bio
Hanna Rosin isn’t afraid to shine a skeptical spotlight on people’s cherished ideals, whether it’s politically correct dogma or the conservative Christian agenda. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
We are now going through an amazing and unprecedented moment
0
0
3000
00:18
where the power dynamics between men and women
1
3000
2000
00:20
are shifting very rapidly,
2
5000
3000
00:23
and in many of the places where it counts the most,
3
8000
2000
00:25
women are, in fact, taking control of everything.
4
10000
3000
00:28
In my mother's day, she didn't go to college.
5
13000
2000
00:30
Not a lot of women did.
6
15000
2000
00:32
And now, for every two men who get a college degree,
7
17000
3000
00:35
three women will do the same.
8
20000
2000
00:37
Women, for the first time this year,
9
22000
2000
00:39
became the majority of the American workforce.
10
24000
2000
00:41
And they're starting to dominate lots of professions --
11
26000
3000
00:44
doctors, lawyers,
12
29000
2000
00:46
bankers, accountants.
13
31000
2000
00:48
Over 50 percent of managers are women these days,
14
33000
3000
00:51
and in the 15 professions
15
36000
2000
00:53
projected to grow the most in the next decade,
16
38000
2000
00:55
all but two of them are dominated by women.
17
40000
2000
00:57
So the global economy is becoming a place
18
42000
2000
00:59
where women are more successful than men,
19
44000
2000
01:01
believe it or not,
20
46000
2000
01:03
and these economic changes
21
48000
2000
01:05
are starting to rapidly affect our culture --
22
50000
2000
01:07
what our romantic comedies look like,
23
52000
2000
01:09
what our marriages look like,
24
54000
2000
01:11
what our dating lives look like,
25
56000
2000
01:13
and our new set of superheroes.
26
58000
2000
01:15
For a long time, this is the image of American manhood that dominated --
27
60000
3000
01:18
tough, rugged,
28
63000
2000
01:20
in control of his own environment.
29
65000
2000
01:22
A few years ago, the Marlboro Man was retired
30
67000
2000
01:24
and replaced by this
31
69000
2000
01:26
much less impressive specimen,
32
71000
2000
01:28
who is a parody of American manhood,
33
73000
2000
01:30
and that's what we have in our commercials today.
34
75000
3000
01:33
The phrase "first-born son"
35
78000
2000
01:35
is so deeply ingrained in our consciousness
36
80000
3000
01:38
that this statistic alone shocked me.
37
83000
2000
01:40
In American fertility clinics,
38
85000
2000
01:42
75 percent of couples
39
87000
2000
01:44
are requesting girls and not boys.
40
89000
2000
01:46
And in places where you wouldn't think,
41
91000
2000
01:48
such as South Korea, India and China,
42
93000
3000
01:51
the very strict patriarchal societies
43
96000
2000
01:53
are starting to break down a little,
44
98000
2000
01:55
and families are no longer
45
100000
2000
01:57
strongly preferring first-born sons.
46
102000
3000
02:00
If you think about this, if you just open your eyes to this possibility
47
105000
3000
02:03
and start to connect the dots,
48
108000
2000
02:05
you can see the evidence everywhere.
49
110000
2000
02:07
You can see it in college graduation patterns,
50
112000
2000
02:09
in job projections,
51
114000
2000
02:11
in our marriage statistics,
52
116000
2000
02:13
you can see it in the Icelandic elections, which you'll hear about later,
53
118000
3000
02:16
and you can see it on South Korean surveys on son preference,
54
121000
3000
02:19
that something amazing and unprecedented
55
124000
2000
02:21
is happening with women.
56
126000
2000
02:23
Certainly this is not the first time that we've had great progress with women.
57
128000
3000
02:26
The '20s and the '60s also come to mind.
58
131000
3000
02:29
But the difference is that, back then,
59
134000
2000
02:31
it was driven by a very passionate feminist movement
60
136000
3000
02:34
that was trying to project its own desires,
61
139000
2000
02:36
whereas this time, it's not about passion,
62
141000
2000
02:38
and it's not about any kind of movement.
63
143000
2000
02:40
This is really just about the facts
64
145000
2000
02:42
of this economic moment that we live in.
65
147000
2000
02:44
The 200,000-year period
66
149000
2000
02:46
in which men have been top dog
67
151000
2000
02:48
is truly coming to an end, believe it or not,
68
153000
3000
02:51
and that's why I talk about the "end of men."
69
156000
3000
02:54
Now all you men out there,
70
159000
2000
02:56
this is not the moment where you tune out or throw some tomatoes,
71
161000
3000
02:59
because the point is that this
72
164000
2000
03:01
is happening to all of us.
73
166000
2000
03:03
I myself have a husband and a father
74
168000
3000
03:06
and two sons whom I dearly love.
75
171000
2000
03:08
And this is why I like to talk about this,
76
173000
2000
03:10
because if we don't acknowledge it,
77
175000
2000
03:12
then the transition will be pretty painful.
78
177000
2000
03:14
But if we do take account of it,
79
179000
2000
03:16
then I think it will go much more smoothly.
80
181000
2000
03:19
I first started thinking about this about a year and a half ago.
81
184000
3000
03:22
I was reading headlines about the recession just like anyone else,
82
187000
3000
03:25
and I started to notice a distinct pattern --
83
190000
2000
03:27
that the recession was affecting men
84
192000
3000
03:30
much more deeply than it was affecting women.
85
195000
2000
03:32
And I remembered back to about 10 years ago
86
197000
2000
03:34
when I read a book by Susan Faludi
87
199000
3000
03:37
called "Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man,"
88
202000
3000
03:40
in which she described how hard the recession had hit men,
89
205000
3000
03:43
and I started to think about
90
208000
2000
03:45
whether it had gotten worse this time around in this recession.
91
210000
3000
03:48
And I realized that two things were different this time around.
92
213000
3000
03:51
The first was that
93
216000
2000
03:53
these were no longer just temporary hits
94
218000
2000
03:55
that the recession was giving men --
95
220000
2000
03:57
that this was reflecting a deeper
96
222000
2000
03:59
underlying shift in our global economy.
97
224000
2000
04:01
And second, that the story was no longer
98
226000
2000
04:03
just about the crisis of men,
99
228000
2000
04:05
but it was also about what was happening to women.
100
230000
2000
04:07
And now look at this second set of slides.
101
232000
2000
04:09
These are headlines about what's been going on with women in the next few years.
102
234000
3000
04:12
These are things we never could have imagined a few years ago.
103
237000
3000
04:15
Women, a majority of the workplace.
104
240000
2000
04:17
And labor statistics: women take up most managerial jobs.
105
242000
3000
04:20
This second set of headlines --
106
245000
2000
04:22
you can see that families and marriages are starting to shift.
107
247000
3000
04:25
And look at that last headline --
108
250000
2000
04:27
young women earning more than young men.
109
252000
2000
04:29
That particular headline comes to me from a market research firm.
110
254000
3000
04:32
They were basically asked by one of their clients
111
257000
3000
04:35
who was going to buy houses in that neighborhood in the future.
112
260000
3000
04:38
And they expected that it would be young families,
113
263000
2000
04:40
or young men, just like it had always been.
114
265000
2000
04:42
But in fact, they found something very surprising.
115
267000
2000
04:44
It was young, single women
116
269000
2000
04:46
who were the major purchasers of houses in the neighborhood.
117
271000
3000
04:49
And so they decided, because they were intrigued by this finding,
118
274000
3000
04:52
to do a nationwide survey.
119
277000
2000
04:54
So they spread out all the census data,
120
279000
2000
04:56
and what they found, the guy described to me as a shocker,
121
281000
3000
04:59
which is that in 1,997
122
284000
3000
05:02
out of 2,000 communities,
123
287000
2000
05:04
women, young women,
124
289000
2000
05:06
were making more money than young men.
125
291000
2000
05:08
So here you have a generation of young women
126
293000
2000
05:10
who grow up thinking of themselves
127
295000
2000
05:12
as being more powerful earners
128
297000
2000
05:14
than the young men around them.
129
299000
2000
05:16
Now, I've just laid out the picture for you,
130
301000
3000
05:19
but I still haven't explained to you why this is happening.
131
304000
3000
05:22
And in a moment, I'm going to show you a graph,
132
307000
2000
05:24
and what you'll see on this graph --
133
309000
2000
05:26
it begins in 1973,
134
311000
2000
05:28
just before women start flooding the workforce,
135
313000
2000
05:30
and it brings us up to our current day.
136
315000
3000
05:33
And basically what you'll see
137
318000
2000
05:35
is what economists talk about
138
320000
2000
05:37
as the polarization of the economy.
139
322000
2000
05:39
Now what does that mean?
140
324000
2000
05:41
It means that the economy is dividing into high-skill, high-wage jobs
141
326000
3000
05:44
and low-skill, low-wage jobs --
142
329000
2000
05:46
and that the middle, the middle-skill jobs,
143
331000
3000
05:49
and the middle-earning jobs, are starting to drop out of the economy.
144
334000
3000
05:52
This has been going on for 40 years now.
145
337000
2000
05:54
But this process is affecting men
146
339000
2000
05:56
very differently than it's affecting women.
147
341000
2000
05:58
You'll see the women in red, and you'll see the men in blue.
148
343000
3000
06:01
You'll watch them both drop out of the middle class,
149
346000
3000
06:04
but see what happens to women and see what happens to men.
150
349000
2000
06:08
There we go.
151
353000
2000
06:10
So watch that. You see them both drop out of the middle class.
152
355000
3000
06:13
Watch what happens to the women. Watch what happens to the men.
153
358000
3000
06:16
The men sort of stagnate there,
154
361000
2000
06:18
while the women zoom up in those high-skill jobs.
155
363000
2000
06:20
So what's that about?
156
365000
2000
06:22
It looks like women got some power boost on a video game,
157
367000
3000
06:25
or like they snuck in some secret serum into their birth-control pills
158
370000
3000
06:28
that lets them shoot up high.
159
373000
2000
06:30
But of course, it's not about that.
160
375000
2000
06:32
What it's about is that the economy has changed a lot.
161
377000
3000
06:35
We used to have a manufacturing economy,
162
380000
2000
06:37
which was about building goods and products,
163
382000
2000
06:39
and now we have a service economy
164
384000
3000
06:42
and an information and creative economy.
165
387000
2000
06:44
Those two economies require very different skills,
166
389000
3000
06:47
and as it happens, women have been much better
167
392000
2000
06:49
at acquiring the new set of skills than men have been.
168
394000
3000
06:52
It used to be that you were
169
397000
2000
06:54
a guy who went to high school
170
399000
2000
06:56
who didn't have a college degree,
171
401000
2000
06:58
but you had a specific set of skills,
172
403000
2000
07:00
and with the help of a union,
173
405000
2000
07:02
you could make yourself a pretty good middle-class life.
174
407000
2000
07:04
But that really isn't true anymore.
175
409000
2000
07:06
This new economy is pretty indifferent
176
411000
2000
07:08
to size and strength,
177
413000
2000
07:10
which is what's helped men along all these years.
178
415000
2000
07:12
What the economy requires now
179
417000
2000
07:14
is a whole different set of skills.
180
419000
2000
07:16
You basically need intelligence,
181
421000
2000
07:18
you need an ability to sit still and focus,
182
423000
3000
07:21
to communicate openly,
183
426000
2000
07:23
to be able to listen to people
184
428000
2000
07:25
and to operate in a workplace that is much more fluid than it used to be,
185
430000
3000
07:28
and those are things that women do extremely well,
186
433000
2000
07:30
as we're seeing.
187
435000
2000
07:32
If you look at management theory these days,
188
437000
2000
07:34
it used to be that our ideal leader
189
439000
2000
07:36
sounded something like General Patton, right?
190
441000
2000
07:38
You would be issuing orders from above.
191
443000
2000
07:40
You would be very hierarchical.
192
445000
2000
07:42
You would tell everyone below you what to do.
193
447000
2000
07:44
But that's not what an ideal leader is like now.
194
449000
2000
07:46
If you read management books now,
195
451000
2000
07:48
a leader is somebody who can foster creativity,
196
453000
3000
07:51
who can get his -- get the employees -- see, I still say "his" --
197
456000
3000
07:54
who can get the employees to talk to each other,
198
459000
2000
07:56
who can basically build teams and get them to be creative.
199
461000
3000
07:59
And those are all things that women do very well.
200
464000
3000
08:02
And then on top of that, that's created a kind of cascading effect.
201
467000
3000
08:05
Women enter the workplace at the top,
202
470000
2000
08:07
and then at the working class,
203
472000
2000
08:09
all the new jobs that are created
204
474000
2000
08:11
are the kinds of jobs that wives used to do for free at home.
205
476000
3000
08:14
So that's childcare,
206
479000
2000
08:16
elder care and food preparation.
207
481000
2000
08:18
So those are all the jobs that are growing,
208
483000
2000
08:20
and those are jobs that women tend to do.
209
485000
2000
08:22
Now one day it might be
210
487000
2000
08:24
that mothers will hire an out-of-work,
211
489000
3000
08:27
middle-aged, former steelworker guy
212
492000
2000
08:29
to watch their children at home,
213
494000
2000
08:31
and that would be good for the men, but that hasn't quite happened yet.
214
496000
3000
08:34
To see what's going to happen, you can't just look at the workforce that is now,
215
499000
3000
08:37
you have to look at our future workforce.
216
502000
3000
08:40
And here the story is fairly simple.
217
505000
3000
08:43
Women are getting college degrees
218
508000
2000
08:45
at a faster rate than men.
219
510000
2000
08:47
Why? This is a real mystery.
220
512000
2000
08:49
People have asked men, why don't they just go back to college,
221
514000
3000
08:52
to community college, say, and retool themselves,
222
517000
2000
08:54
learn a new set of skills?
223
519000
2000
08:56
Well it turns out that they're just very uncomfortable doing that.
224
521000
3000
08:59
They're used to thinking of themselves as providers,
225
524000
2000
09:01
and they can't seem to build the social networks
226
526000
2000
09:03
that allow them to get through college.
227
528000
2000
09:05
So for some reason
228
530000
2000
09:07
men just don't end up going back to college.
229
532000
2000
09:09
And what's even more disturbing
230
534000
2000
09:11
is what's happening with younger boys.
231
536000
2000
09:13
There's been about a decade of research
232
538000
2000
09:15
about what people are calling the "boy crisis."
233
540000
2000
09:17
Now the boy crisis is this idea
234
542000
2000
09:19
that very young boys, for whatever reason,
235
544000
3000
09:22
are doing worse in school than very young girls,
236
547000
3000
09:25
and people have theories about that.
237
550000
2000
09:27
Is it because we have an excessively verbal curriculum,
238
552000
2000
09:29
and little girls are better at that than little boys?
239
554000
2000
09:31
Or that we require kids to sit still too much,
240
556000
3000
09:34
and so boys initially feel like failures?
241
559000
2000
09:36
And some people say it's because,
242
561000
2000
09:38
in 9th grade, boys start dropping out of school.
243
563000
2000
09:40
Because I'm writing a book about all this, I'm still looking into it,
244
565000
3000
09:43
so I don't have the answer.
245
568000
2000
09:45
But in the mean time, I'm going to call on the worldwide education expert,
246
570000
3000
09:48
who's my 10-year-old daughter, Noa,
247
573000
2000
09:50
to talk to you about
248
575000
2000
09:52
why the boys in her class do worse.
249
577000
3000
09:55
(Video) Noa: The girls are obviously smarter.
250
580000
2000
09:57
I mean they have much larger vocabulary.
251
582000
3000
10:00
They learn much faster.
252
585000
2000
10:02
They are more controlled.
253
587000
2000
10:04
On the board today for losing recess tomorrow, only boys.
254
589000
3000
10:07
Hanna Rosin: And why is that?
255
592000
2000
10:09
Noa: Why? They were just not listening to the class
256
594000
2000
10:11
while the girls sat there very nicely.
257
596000
2000
10:13
HR: So there you go.
258
598000
2000
10:15
This whole thesis really came home to me
259
600000
2000
10:17
when I went to visit a college in Kansas City --
260
602000
3000
10:20
working-class college.
261
605000
2000
10:22
Certainly, when I was in college, I had certain expectations about my life --
262
607000
3000
10:25
that my husband and I would both work,
263
610000
3000
10:28
and that we would equally raise the children.
264
613000
2000
10:30
But these college girls
265
615000
2000
10:32
had a completely different view of their future.
266
617000
2000
10:34
Basically, the way they said it to me is
267
619000
3000
10:37
that they would be working 18 hours a day,
268
622000
2000
10:39
that their husband would maybe have a job,
269
624000
2000
10:41
but that mostly he would be at home taking care of the kiddies.
270
626000
3000
10:44
And this was kind of a shocker to me.
271
629000
2000
10:46
And then here's my favorite quote from one of the girls:
272
631000
2000
10:48
"Men are the new ball and chain."
273
633000
3000
10:51
(Laughter)
274
636000
3000
10:54
Now you laugh,
275
639000
2000
10:56
but that quote has kind of a sting to it, right?
276
641000
2000
10:58
And I think the reason it has a sting
277
643000
2000
11:00
is because thousands of years of history
278
645000
2000
11:02
don't reverse themselves
279
647000
2000
11:04
without a lot of pain,
280
649000
2000
11:06
and that's why I talk about
281
651000
2000
11:08
us all going through this together.
282
653000
2000
11:11
The night after I talked to these college girls,
283
656000
2000
11:13
I also went to a men's group in Kansas,
284
658000
2000
11:15
and these were exactly the kind of victims of the manufacturing economy
285
660000
3000
11:18
which I spoke to you about earlier.
286
663000
2000
11:20
They were men who had been contractors,
287
665000
2000
11:22
or they had been building houses
288
667000
2000
11:24
and they had lost their jobs after the housing boom,
289
669000
2000
11:26
and they were in this group because they were failing to pay their child support.
290
671000
3000
11:29
And the instructor was up there in the class
291
674000
2000
11:31
explaining to them all the ways
292
676000
2000
11:33
in which they had lost their identity in this new age.
293
678000
3000
11:36
He was telling them they no longer had any moral authority,
294
681000
3000
11:39
that nobody needed them for emotional support anymore,
295
684000
2000
11:41
and they were not really the providers.
296
686000
2000
11:43
So who were they?
297
688000
2000
11:45
And this was very disheartening for them.
298
690000
2000
11:47
And what he did was he wrote down on the board
299
692000
2000
11:49
"$85,000,"
300
694000
2000
11:51
and he said, "That's her salary,"
301
696000
2000
11:53
and then he wrote down "$12,000."
302
698000
3000
11:56
"That's your salary.
303
701000
2000
11:58
So who's the man now?" he asked them.
304
703000
2000
12:00
"Who's the damn man?
305
705000
2000
12:02
She's the man now."
306
707000
2000
12:04
And that really sent a shudder through the room.
307
709000
2000
12:06
And that's part of the reason I like to talk about this,
308
711000
2000
12:08
because I think it can be pretty painful,
309
713000
2000
12:10
and we really have to work through it.
310
715000
2000
12:12
And the other reason it's kind of urgent
311
717000
2000
12:14
is because it's not just happening in the U.S.
312
719000
2000
12:16
It's happening all over the world.
313
721000
2000
12:18
In India, poor women are learning English
314
723000
2000
12:20
faster than their male counterparts
315
725000
2000
12:22
in order to staff the new call centers
316
727000
2000
12:24
that are growing in India.
317
729000
2000
12:26
In China, a lot of the opening up of private entrepreneurship
318
731000
3000
12:29
is happening because women are starting businesses,
319
734000
2000
12:31
small businesses, faster than men.
320
736000
2000
12:33
And here's my favorite example, which is in South Korea.
321
738000
3000
12:36
Over several decades,
322
741000
2000
12:38
South Korea built one of the most patriarchal societies we know about.
323
743000
3000
12:41
They basically enshrined the second-class status of women
324
746000
4000
12:45
in the civil code.
325
750000
2000
12:47
And if women failed to birth male children,
326
752000
2000
12:49
they were basically treated like domestic servants.
327
754000
3000
12:52
And sometimes family would pray to the spirits to kill off a girl child
328
757000
3000
12:55
so they could have a male child.
329
760000
2000
12:57
But over the '70s and '80s,
330
762000
2000
12:59
the South Korea government decided they wanted to rapidly industrialize,
331
764000
3000
13:02
and so what they did was,
332
767000
2000
13:04
they started to push women into the workforce.
333
769000
2000
13:06
Now they've been asking a question since 1985:
334
771000
3000
13:09
"How strongly do you prefer a first-born son?"
335
774000
2000
13:11
And now look at the chart.
336
776000
2000
13:13
That's from 1985 to 2003.
337
778000
3000
13:16
How much do you prefer a first-born son?
338
781000
2000
13:18
So you can see that these economic changes
339
783000
2000
13:20
really do have a strong effect on our culture.
340
785000
3000
13:23
Now because we haven't fully processed this information,
341
788000
3000
13:26
it's kind of coming back to us in our pop culture
342
791000
2000
13:28
in these kind of weird and exaggerated ways,
343
793000
3000
13:31
where you can see that the stereotypes are changing.
344
796000
3000
13:34
And so we have on the male side
345
799000
2000
13:36
what one of my colleagues likes to call the "omega males" popping up,
346
801000
3000
13:39
who are the males who are romantically challenged losers
347
804000
2000
13:41
who can't find a job.
348
806000
2000
13:43
And they come up in lots of different forms.
349
808000
3000
13:46
So we have the perpetual adolescent.
350
811000
3000
13:49
We have the charmless misanthrope.
351
814000
3000
13:52
Then we have our Bud Light guy
352
817000
2000
13:54
who's the happy couch potato.
353
819000
2000
13:56
And then here's a shocker: even America's most sexiest man alive,
354
821000
3000
13:59
the sexiest man alive
355
824000
2000
14:01
gets romantically played these days in a movie.
356
826000
2000
14:03
And then on the female side, you have the opposite,
357
828000
3000
14:06
in which you have these crazy superhero women.
358
831000
3000
14:09
You've got Lady Gaga.
359
834000
3000
14:12
You've got our new James Bond, who's Angelina Jolie.
360
837000
3000
14:15
And it's not just for the young, right?
361
840000
3000
14:18
Even Helen Mirren can hold a gun these days.
362
843000
3000
14:21
And so it feels like we have to move from this place
363
846000
3000
14:24
where we've got these uber-exaggerated images
364
849000
3000
14:27
into something that feels a little more normal.
365
852000
3000
14:30
So for a long time in the economic sphere,
366
855000
2000
14:32
we've lived with the term "glass ceiling."
367
857000
2000
14:34
Now I've never really liked this term.
368
859000
2000
14:36
For one thing, it puts men and women
369
861000
2000
14:38
in a really antagonistic relationship with one another,
370
863000
3000
14:41
because the men are these devious tricksters up there
371
866000
2000
14:43
who've put up this glass ceiling.
372
868000
2000
14:45
And we're always below the glass ceiling, the women.
373
870000
3000
14:48
And we have a lot of skill and experience,
374
873000
3000
14:51
but it's a trick, so how are you supposed to prepare
375
876000
2000
14:53
to get through that glass ceiling?
376
878000
2000
14:55
And also, "shattering the glass ceiling" is a terrible phrase.
377
880000
3000
14:58
What crazy person
378
883000
2000
15:00
would pop their head through a glass ceiling?
379
885000
2000
15:02
So the image that I like to think of,
380
887000
2000
15:04
instead of glass ceiling,
381
889000
2000
15:06
is the high bridge.
382
891000
2000
15:08
It's definitely terrifying to stand at the foot of a high bridge,
383
893000
3000
15:11
but it's also pretty exhilarating,
384
896000
2000
15:13
because it's beautiful up there,
385
898000
2000
15:15
and you're looking out on a beautiful view.
386
900000
3000
15:18
And the great thing is there's no trick like with the glass ceiling.
387
903000
3000
15:21
There's no man or woman standing in the middle
388
906000
2000
15:23
about to cut the cables.
389
908000
2000
15:25
There's no hole in the middle that you're going to fall through.
390
910000
2000
15:27
And the great thing is that you can take anyone along with you.
391
912000
3000
15:30
You can bring your husband along.
392
915000
2000
15:32
You can bring your friends, or your colleagues,
393
917000
2000
15:34
or your babysitter to walk along with you.
394
919000
2000
15:36
And husbands can drag their wives across, if their wives don't feel ready.
395
921000
3000
15:39
But the point about the high bridge
396
924000
2000
15:41
is that you have to have the confidence
397
926000
2000
15:43
to know that you deserve to be on that bridge,
398
928000
2000
15:45
that you have all the skills and experience you need
399
930000
3000
15:48
in order to walk across the high bridge,
400
933000
3000
15:51
but you just have to make the decision
401
936000
2000
15:53
to take the first step and do it.
402
938000
2000
15:55
Thanks very much.
403
940000
2000
15:57
(Applause)
404
942000
9000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Hanna Rosin - JournalistHanna Rosin isn’t afraid to shine a skeptical spotlight on people’s cherished ideals, whether it’s politically correct dogma or the conservative Christian agenda.
Why you should listen
Hanna Rosin is the sort of journalist who dares to articulate what people are thinking – only they hadn’t realized it yet. Born in Israel and raised in Queens, the co-founder of women’s site DoubleX (an offshoot of Slate) and contributing editor at the Atlantic Monthly is probably best known for the furor raised by her article titled (not by her) “The End of Men”—which asserts that the era of male dominance has come to an end as women gain power in the postindustrial economy. A similar furor greeted her well-researched piece “The Case Against Breastfeeding,” which questioned the degree to which scientific evidence supports breast-feeding’s touted benefits.
Rosin has covered religion and politics for the Washington Post and contributes to such publications as the New Yorker and the New Republic. Her book God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America peers into the inner workings of Patrick Henry College, a seven-year school for evangelical Christians aspiring to political and cultural influence.
Hanna Rosin | Speaker | TED.com