Axios AM published a piece Sept. 6 dressing up the crisis of men leaving the workforce in record numbers as a win for women’s equality. “Workplace gender gap hits new low,” the newsletter stated. “Women are closing in on men in the workplace, Axios Markets’ Emily Peck writes.”
Screenshot Axios AM Sept 6, 2023
A report from the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution showed that the highest increase of workforce participants after 2020 came from mothers with at least one child under five. Peck promotes this as a positive thing for women’s equality. It represents to her “a ‘level shift’ for working mothers — with potential lifetime consequences in terms of higher earnings and improved career trajectories.”
It’s not that the economy is booming, and our country has worked out a parental leave program that supports and boosts families so more mothers can enter the workforce, doubling the family’s ability to financially survive President Joe Biden’s spending spree. Women are being forced to take a more active earning role in the family because men are opting out of the labor market, and progressives are actively cheering their downfall.
Mothers with young children should be home teaching and nurturing their families. Daycare should be a last resort. Encouraging mothers to leave their children in the care of strangers who do not love them is damaging to the mother and child.
Yes, it is true that the “workplace gender gap” narrowed in percentage. Still, it is hard not to notice that the cheerful green line representing the percentage of men in the workplace is not increasing as the strong purple line for women does. The number of men in the labor market has decreased to almost pandemic-level lows. This is terrible news if you care even the slightest bit about men and their societal role.
Seven million men in the prime of life are opting out of the labor market, according to a Sept. 5 report released by Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio titled, “The State of the Working (And Non-Working) Man.” Men aren’t being asked to take leadership roles because those are reserved for the diversity hires. DEI demands we look for women first and then go down the equity ladder to determine which particular interest group represents the biggest victim points.
The lack of available upward mobility is soul-crushing, leading men to decide that being vilified at work all day for little pay and even less respect just isn’t worth it.
Here starts the doom cycle.
Men — demonized and depressed — drop out of the labor market. Society does nothing to bring them back in. Instead, we write loads of articles about why this is a good thing for women and ignore the male plight. Men turn to porn, video games, and weed to cope with the overwhelming depression from their lack of purpose. Women don’t want to marry unemployed men smoking weed and watching porn all day in their mother’s basement, making men not just unemployed, but also unloved.
Men deserve so much better than what we are offering them. A proper society cannot function with this happening to seven million men. Earning a living gives a man respect and honor. Women don’t want to date men who make less than them because it is a sign that he has no drive or potential to earn a comfortable living. (ROOKE: Blaming Feminism Is A Cope For Men Who Traded Masculinity For The Mirage Of Free Love)
Hoards of unemployed men are dangerous for our nation. The neighborhoods are safer when the men who live there have duty and integrity. But we aren’t giving that to them if the narrative we tell them is that it is better for society when MOTHERS with children under the age of five are more desirable employees than single men.
Married or not, men should be out working with the goal of being the best at their craft. When men have a strong focus, so does society’s morality. At this moment, our nation is the culmination of several generations of men focused on escapism rather than being masters of the universe. America used to offer men the promise that if they showed up, worked hard, and were loyal, our nation would repay them with the financial security to support a home and family. What we have now is not sustainable.
Mary Rooke is a reporter at the Daily Caller.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller.