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AT FIRST glance the patriarchy appears tobe thriving. More than 90% of presidents and prime ministers are male, as arenearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance, technology, films,sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they still enjoysocial and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome. So itmight seem odd to worry about the plight of men. 乍一看，父权制似乎正如日中天。不仅几乎所有大企业的老板是男性，超过90％的总统和总理也是男性。男性主宰了金融、技术、影视、体育、音乐，甚至单人脱口秀。在这个世界的大多数地方，他们仍然仅仅因为有一条Y染色体而享有社会的和法律的特权。因此，担心男性身处困境可能有点杞人忧天。 Yet there is plenty of cause for concern.Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top. They are far more likely thanwomen to be jailed, estranged from their children, or to kill themselves. Theyearn fewer university degrees than women. Boys in the developed world are 50%more likely to flunk basic maths, reading and science entirely. 然而，这种关注是有充分理由的。男性在社会顶层聚集的同时也在底层扎堆。他们被关进监狱，被自己的孩子疏远，或者是自杀的可能性都比女性更大。他们得到的大学学位少于女性。在发达国家中，男孩在数学、阅读以及科学这三门基础学科上全不及格的可能性比女生高出50%。 One group in particular is suffering.Poorly educated men in rich countries have had difficulty coping with theenormous changes in the labour market and the home over the past half-century.As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggledto find a role in the workplace. Women, on the other hand, are surging intoexpanding sectors such as health care and education, helped by their superiorskills. As education has become more important, boys have also fallen behindgirls in school (except at the very top). Men who lose jobs in manufacturingoften never work again. And men without work find it hard to attract apermanent mate. The result, for low-skilled men, is a poisonous combination ofno job, no family and no prospects. 一类男性尤其受罪。在过去的50年中，发达国家中那些没受过多少教育的男性始终在应对劳动力市场和家庭的巨变方面存在困难。因为技术和贸易降低了靠力气谋生之人的价值，没受过多少教育的男性一直难以在工作场所中给自己找到一个定位。相反，得益于她们的高级技能，女性正在蜂拥进入保健看护和教育等日渐扩张的部门。随着教育变得越来越重要，男孩还在学校中落在了女生的后面（除了在学习最好的层面）。失去其制造业工作的男性经常是再也不去工作，而没有工作的男性发现自己难以吸引一个终生伴侣。对于低技能的男性来说，其结果就是一种没有工作、没有家庭和没有前途的有毒合成物。 Those on the political left tend to focuson economics. Shrinking job opportunities for men, they say, are entrenchingpoverty and destroying families. In America pay for men with only a high-schoolcertificate fell by 21% in real terms between 1979 and 2013; for women withsimilar qualifications it rose by 3%. Around a fifth of working-age Americanmen with only a high-school diploma have no job.
政治上的左派倾向于把焦点放在经济方面。他们认为，针对男性而言的日渐萎缩的工作机会正在强化贫困，摧毁家庭。在美国，只有高中学历的男性的实际工资，在1979年至2013年间下降了21％；而同等学历的女性的实际工资上涨了3％。大约有五分之一的只有高中学历且正值工作年龄的美国男性没有工作。 Those on the right worry about the collapseof the family. The vast majority of women would prefer to have a partner whodoes his bit both financially and domestically. But they would rather dowithout one than team up with a layabout, which may be all that is on offer:American men without jobs spend only half as much time on housework and caringfor others as do women in the same situation, and much more time watchingtelevision. 保守派则在为家庭的裂变而担忧。绝大多数女性更愿意有一位能够同时在财务和家务事上完成其分内职责的伴侣。但是，如果没有这样一位男性，她们宁愿一个人过，也不愿同一位懒汉结成伴侣，而懒汉可能正是社会上最常见的：在同样的条件下，没有工作的美国男性花在家务事和照顾他人上面的时间只有女性的一半，而且他们看电视的时间也要比女性多很多。 Hence the unravelling of working-classfamilies. The two-parent family, still the norm among the elite, is vanishingamong the poor. In rich countries the proportion of births outside marriage hastrebled since 1980, to 33%. In some areas where traditional manufacturing hascollapsed, it has reached 70% or more. Children raised in broken homes learnless at school, are more likely to drop out and earn less later on thanchildren from intact ones. They are also not very good at forming stablefamilies of their own. 这就造成了工薪阶层家庭的解体。仍在精英阶层常见的双亲家庭，正在穷人中逐渐消失。发达国家的婚外生育率自20世纪80年代以来已经上升了3倍，至33％。在传统制造业已经凋零的某些地区，婚外生育率已经升至70％，甚至更高。被破碎家庭养大的孩子在学校中较少学习。相比来自完整家庭的孩子，他们更有可能辍学，而且以后挣得钱也要少。他们还在组成自己的稳定家庭方面表现的很差劲。 These two sides often talk past each other.But their explanations are not contradictory: both economics and social changeare to blame, and the two causes reinforce each other. Moreover, these problemsare likely to get worse. Technology will disrupt more industries, creatingbenefits for society but rendering workers who fail to update their skillsredundant. The OECD, a think-tank, predicts that the absolute number ofsingle-parent households will continue to rise in nearly all rich countries.Boys who grow up without fathers are more likely to have trouble forminglasting relationships, creating a cycle of male dysfunction. 左右双方经常各持己见。但是，他们的解释并不矛盾：经济的和社会的变化都负有责任，而且这两个原因是相互强化的。更为重要的是，这些问题可能会变得更加糟糕。技术将摧毁更多的行业，在为社会创造福利的同时，还让那些没能更新自己技能的工人成为多余之人。经合组织预测，单亲家庭的绝对数量将在几乎所有的发达国家中继续上升。在没有父亲的情况下长大的男孩更有可能在形成持久的关系方面临困难，创造出一个男性功能缺失的循环。 What can be done? Part of the solution liesin a change in cultural attitudes. Over the past generation, middle-class menhave learned that they need to help with child care, and have changed theirbehaviour. Working-class men need to catch up. Women have learned that they canbe surgeons and physicists without losing their femininity. Men need tounderstand that traditional manual jobs are not coming back, and that they canbe nurses or hairdressers without losing their masculinity. 怎么办？答案部分在于文化态度的转变。在过去一代人的时间中，中产阶层的男性已经懂得，他们需要在照顾孩子方面出一把力，而且已经改变了他们的行为。工薪阶层的男性需要赶上来。女性已经懂得，她们可以在不失去女性特点的情况下，成为外科医生和物理学家。男性需要懂得，靠力气吃饭的传统工作正在一去不复返，他们可以不失去男性阳刚的情况下成为护士或者美发师。 Policymakers also need to lend a hand,because foolish laws are making the problem worse. America reduces the supplyof marriageable men by locking up millions of young males for non-violentoffences and then making it hard for them to find work when they get out (inGeorgia, for example, felons are barred from feeding pigs, fighting fires orworking in funeral homes). A number of rich countries discourage poor peoplefrom marrying or cohabiting by cutting their benefits if they do. 政策制定者也需要伸出援手，因为愚蠢的政策正使问题恶化。美国适婚男性的供给减少，是因为他们将数百万仅犯有非暴力罪行的年轻男性关进了监狱，之后又让他们在出狱时难以找到工作（例如，在佐治亚州，重罪犯是被禁止从事生猪饲养、消防灭火等工作，或者在殡仪馆服务的）所致。许多富裕国家都在利用结婚或同居就减少福利的方式，打消穷人结婚或者同居的念头。 Even more important than scrapping foolishpolicies is retooling the educational system, which was designed in an age whenmost men worked with their muscles. Politicians need to recognise thatboys underachievement is a seriousproblem, and set about fixing it. Some sensible policies that are good foreverybody are particularly good for boys. Early-childhood education providesboys with more structure and a better chance of developing verbal and socialskills. Countries with successful vocational systems such as Germany have donea better job than Anglo-Saxon countries of motivating non-academic boys and guidingthem into jobs, but policymakers need to reinvent vocational education for anage when trainees are more likely to get jobs in hospitals than factories. 比取消愚蠢政策更为重要的是重塑这个在大多数人还在凭力气吃饭的时代被设计出来的教育体系。政客需要认识到，男孩学习成绩差是一个严重的问题，并要着手去解决它。对所有人都有好处的一些合理政策对男孩尤其有好处。儿童时期早期的教育能够给男孩提供更多的结构和更好的开发语言和社交技能的机会。在激励不走学术道路的男孩和指导他们就业方面，拥有成功职业教育体系的国家，如德国，要比讲英语的国家做得更好。但是，政策制定者需要为了这个受训者更有可能得到一份在医院的工作而不是在工厂的工作的时代，重塑现在的职业教育体系。 More generally, schools need to become moreboy-friendly. They should recognise that boys like to rush around more thangirls do: it's better to give them lots of organised sports and energy-eatinggames than to dose them with Ritalin or tell them off for fidgeting. They needto provide more male role models: employing more male teachers in primaryschools will both supply boys with a male to whom they can relate anddemonstrate that men can be teachers as well as firefighters. 更为一般的是，学校需要变得对男孩更加友好。他们应当认识到，男孩比女孩更喜欢四处乱跑：给他们提供大量的有组织的体育活动和能消耗他们活力的游戏，胜于给他们开出利他林，或者是因为做小动作而训斥他们。学校需要提供更多的男性角色榜样：在小学中雇佣更多的男性教师，既可以给男孩们提供能够与其沟通的男性，还能够表明男性既可以当消防队员也可以成为老师。 The growing equality of the sexes is one ofthe biggest achievements of the post-war era: people have greater opportunitiesthan ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless of their gender. Butsome men have failed to cope with this new world. It is time to give them ahand. 两性的日渐平等是战后时代最伟大的成就之一：人们拥有比以前任何时候都要大的机会去实现自己的抱负，而不考虑自己的性别。但是，有些男性一直没能适应这个新世界。该是帮他们一把的时候了。 |
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