Battle of the Sexes Is
Over and Clearly Girls Have Won
by
By KATHLEEN PARKER © 1999
kparker@kparker.com
They just don't get it. Remember when
women said that about men? Fast forward a decade or so. Here at the
turn of the millennium, the roles are reversed. Women just don't get
it.
They don't get that the war is over.
They don't get that girls have more than equal the opportunities of
boys. They don't get that boys more than girls are in trouble today.
No matter how many new studies - or news magazine covers - attest to
the tragedy that is The American Boy, they just don't get it.
During any given week, I hear from
dozens of readers blasting me for betraying The Plight of Women and
Girls. One in the past week accused me of really being a man. Another
lamented my failure to understand that I'm a victim of the patriarchal
society. A female student wrote asking for help on a paper about
inequities in education for women. Oops, wrong columnist.
Alas, my hankie is dry. One need only
be the parent of a son to know that boys are the underdogs these days.
Absent a son, one need only watch the news or read any of a half-dozen
new books that attempt to make a case for saving our boys.
Here's some of what you may have missed
while taking your daughters to work:
Four boys are diagnosed as emotionally
disturbed to every one girl; two boys are learning-disabled for every
one girl; six boys are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder to
every one girl; two teen boys die for every one girl. (Source: Dr.
Michael Gurian's book, "The Wonder of Boys.")
Fifty-five percent of college students
are female, according to a 1991 U.S. Department of Education report.
Although women still lag behind men in earning doctoral degrees, more
than half of all bachelor's and master's degrees are awarded to women.
On standardized tests administered to
17-year-olds, boys still outperform girls by three points in math and
11 points in science, according to the same DOE report. But girls
outperform boys by 13 points in reading and 24 points in writing.
Girls outnumber boys in all
extracurricular activities except for sports and hobby clubs,
according to the 1996 Digest of Educational Statistics. That, too, is
changing. By 1987, 26 percent of girls participated in high school
athletic programs, compared to only 4 percent in 1972, according to a
1992 report by the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women.
More boys than girls drop out of
school, according to the 1992 Digest of Educational Statistics. Boys
are more likely than girls to be robbed, threatened or attacked. Just
about every pathology, including alcoholism and drug abuse, hits boys
harder.
It is true that girls are four to five
times more likely than boys to attempt suicide, as reported by the
Wellesley Report. It is also true, however, that boys succeed more
often. Current figures show that 21.9 boys per 100,000 between the
ages of 15 and 24 kill themselves; for girls in the same age group,
the number is 4.2 per 100,000.
The rate of suicide among
African-American adolescents, meanwhile, has increased 100 percent in
the past 10 years, according to Dr. William Pollack, Harvard
psychiatrist and author of "Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons From the
Myths of Boyhood."
Finally, no one needs reminding who
brings guns to school and kills classmates. No one needs reminding
which kids were ceaselessly bullied and tormented. No one needs
reminding that girls are more special than boys. If in doubt, just ask
a boy.
Which suggests we do need reminding
that elevating one segment of society at the expense of others is
always unfair, inevitably counterproductive, and in the absence of
hope or remedy, often fatal, as recent events compel us to note.
It's time to get it.
Copyright 1999 Kathleen
Parker, all rights reserved
