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Men Championing Patriarchy The Latest News 27/11/2003 - Gender Report for October 2003 Items: * Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage * Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern * A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry * Full-time mums \'need government help\' * Male and female brains are different – social philosopher * Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain, By Simon Baron-Cohen. __________________________________________________________________________________ Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage More women are having children alone, unable to find men willing to commit to marriage or the cost of setting up a household, a study has found. The proportion of single mothers aged 30 to 34 who fell into this category jumped from 17 per cent of female lone parents in 1986 to 42 per cent in 2001, according to the study, released today. Among younger women aged 25 to 29 who were sole parents, the number was even greater, increasing from 37 per cent to 66 per cent over the same period. The author of the Monash University research, Dr Bob Birrell, said this group of single women heralded a new social phenomenon. It also raised concerns about the financial and emotional hardships for the women and children involved. \"It is not the case that these women are unwilling to get married – they would probably quite like to marry,\" Dr Birrell said. \"But the marriage market they\'re operating in contains men who lack the resources to take on the creation of a new household, men who are unwilling to get married or live in a de facto relationship.\" The growing trend of unpartnered women having children is backed by preliminary findings from another study by the Monash team of all exnuptial births in Victoria in 2001. It found that when unmarried new mothers in hospital were asked if they had a de facto partner, almost half said they did not. Dr Birrell said the rapid increase in the number of mothers who had never married and were not in de facto relationships had become a major concern for society because most depended on welfare payments to survive. \"They have much greater difficulties providing for their children because there is little prospect of financial help from the fathers, who tend to be on low incomes and who pay little or no maintenance,\" he said. The study from Monash\'s Centre for Population and Urban Research, which used census data, will be released at the Australian Family Association\'s national conference in Adelaide today. It follows comments from a senior labour market economist earlier this week who said increasing numbers of prime-aged men had become poor marriage prospects because of labour-market changes. Professor Sue Richardson, of Flinders University, told a conference that 35 per cent of Australian men aged 35 to 44 were unmarried and unemployed, compared with 20 per cent in 1978. Professor Richardson said many of these men were shunning marriage or fatherhood because of poor incomes and job prospects. (Caroline Milburn, The Age (Melbourne), 4 October 2003.) Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern Women have overtaken men at every level of education in developed countries around the world. And girls are now more confident of getting better-paid, professional jobs than their flagging male counterparts. International education figures, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistent picture, across cultures and continents, of women achieving better results than men. The OECD survey is a detailed comparison of education achievement and spending in 43 developed countries. The success of girls is a complete reversal of what would have been expected a generation ago, said Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis at the OECD\'s education directorate. And he says that the 1990s have seen a remarkable change in women\'s expectations and achievements. The survey found that in almost every developed country, 15-year-old girls are more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs. For example, in the United Kingdom, 63% of girls expect to have \"white collar, high-skilled\" jobs by the time they are 30, compared to only 51% of boys. This picture of girls with higher expectations than boys is repeated in the United States, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Australia. University challenge And girls have good reason to be more confident than boys, because academically, around the globe, they are more successful - which is likely to lead to higher-income jobs. In literacy skills, 15-year-old girls are ahead of boys in every one of the 43 countries in the OECD survey. In the UK, the gap in literacy scores between girls and boys at this age is 26%. And this school-age gender gap leads to an increasingly stark difference between the success of male and female students in getting into university. In New Zealand, 89% of women enter university, compared to 62% of men. In Iceland, 80% of women go into higher education, compared to 42% of men. In the United Kingdom, the figures for 2001 show that 49% of women entered university, compared to 41% of men. And Andreas Schleicher says that much of the rapid growth in higher education places and the larger number of students staying in education can be directly attributed to this growing academic success of women. But why should boys be falling behind, in so many different countries? Andreas Schleicher says there are \"troubling signs\" that boys are more susceptible to being put off education by disruptions in their home environment. Boys seem less able to overcome obstacles to education, he says, whether it is peer group pressure or a lack of family support. (BBC News, Tuesday, 16 September, 2003.) A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry The Family First Party of South Australia has successfully persuaded the parliament of South Australia to launch a Fatherhood Inquiry. The leader of the party, Pastor Andrew Evans MLC, said the fatherhood inquiry had received the support of every member of the Legislative Council. He was commenting after the Upper House had voted on the proposal yesterday and gave it unanimous support. Andrew Evans said in Parliament: “It is refreshing to see that this House has quite rightly recognised this to be an extremely important issue which impacts not just fathers, but has a flow on effect to mothers, the children, families in general (including extended families) and the community as a whole” The committee will consist of two members from the government, two members of the liberal party, a democrat and Mr Evans. “South Australia is the first state to conduct an inquiry of this type and I am confident that it will be a catalyst for change. I encourage any interested person or organisation to make a submission to the committee. All submissions will receive individual consideration”, said Mr Evans. The committee is scheduled to report to parliament on 3 December 2003. Mr Evans said he was delighted yesterday afternoon to have the full support of every member of the Upper House into an inquiry initiated by Family First concerning the crisis currently facing many fathers. He said that separated fathers committed suicide at a rate of 5 to 1 when compared to mothers. In addition there are one million children currently living without their fathers, and it is costing Australian society around $13 billion per year. The result, he said, was visited on children later in life, and they were more likely to run into problems such as involvement in crime, using drugs, and experiencing poverty, as a result. The Inquiry has the following Terms of Reference:- I That a Select Committee of the Legislative Council be appointed to investigate and report upon:- (a) The status of fathers in South Australia by reference to the current level of recognition of their role in family formation and child rearing and in the support given to them by the public and private sectors and the community in general; (b) The current difficulties facing fathers in South Australia from an economic, social and financial perspective in the formation and maintenance of the family unit; (c) The nature and availability of government and non-government support and services for fathers in crisis in SA. II That standing order 389 be suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only. III That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it thinks fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council. IV That standing order 396 be suspended as to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating. The Committee has a reporting deadline of 3 December 2003, and will be taking submisions and evidence over the coming weeks (South Australia only). The Select Committee consists of the following members:- The Hon. Carmel Zollo MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Gazzola MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Dawkins MLC (LP) The Hon. Michelle Lensink (LP) The Hon. Kate Reynolds MLC (Dem) Comment: This is welcome news indeed! Mr Evans and Family First are to be thoroughly congratulated on this initiative. Let’s hope that other Australian States follow suit, and that the Inquiry enjoys widespread support and success. Full-time mums \'need government help\' The British Government has been urged to help women who wanted to be full-time mothers after new research showed that working mums were disillusioned and stressed out trying to juggle home and work lives. A survey of 2,000 women with young children showed that two out of three would rather be a full time mother than return to work. Those who did work were \"wracked\" with guilt and 92% wished they were at home with their child. Most of the women surveyed by Mother & Baby magazine believed they were missing out on their child\'s early years and many complained of being tired or stressed. One in 10 had none of their salary left after paying for childcare and most still had to do housework or take time off if their child was ill. Research showed that one in three working mothers took an average of 12 days off a year due to stress. Most said they were often too tired for sex and did not have a good social life. Karen Pasquali-Jones, editor of the magazine, said the vast majority of working mothers with young children longed for full-time motherhood. There were Government initiatives to help working mothers, but nothing for women who wanted to stay at home full time with their children, she added. \"The fact is that for many mothers, working is simply not worth their while financially. No wonder many mothers question whether it is worth missing out on their children\'s childhood for a meagre amount.\" (Manumit Exchange, 22/10/03). Male and female brains are different – social philosopher LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It\'s the universal question on many women\'s lips. \"What could he be thinking?\" she shrieks, or sighs or sulks at her husband, boyfriend or son. What is it with men and cars? Why doesn\'t he notice how much housework needs to be done? Why does he need to keep a grip on the remote control? And the most bewildering one of all -- why won\'t he just talk to me? The answers, says social philosopher and author Michael Gurian, lie not in laziness, sexism or sheer pigheadedness but in profound differences between the male and female brain -- and scientists now have the technology to prove it. \"What Could He Be Thinking? How a Man\'s Mind Really Works,\" combines two decades of neurobiological research with anecdotes from everyday life and Gurian\'s experience as a family therapist to present a new vision of the male psyche. It\'s a vision that Gurian hopes will help promote a better understanding of men and reverse what he sees as the dangerous assumption born of the past 40 years of radical femininism that men have simply become redundant. \"As a culture, we\'ve made profound mistakes in the last few decades by assuming that men were unnecessary. Many people have even gone so far as to negate or dismiss what is at the core of a man,\" Gurian writes. Gurian, author of the 1996 groundbreaking book \"The Wonder of Boys\" and its follow-up \"The Wonder of Girls,\" is no anti-feminist. He is married with two daughters, and his book mines the field of brain science to help improve relations between couples. Culture plays a part, but Gurian argues that biology matters much more than previously realised. \"The science has been crucial. Wherever I go, I start by showing PET scans and people can see for themselves the differences between the male and female brain. I think that alters life and marriages,\" Gurian told Reuters. The science part Such are the advances in technology and understanding that PET radioactive-imaging and MRI magnetic-imaging scans can now show whether a man and a woman are truly in love by measuring the amount of activity in the cingulate gyrus, an emotion centre in the brain, Gurian says. Like a guide through a secret forest, his book leads the nonscientist through the complex world of brain science and relates it to some of the most frustrating sources of conflict between men and women in long-term relationships. The male brain secretes less of the powerful primary bonding chemical oxytocin and less of the calming chemical serotonin than the female brain. So while women find emotional conversations a good way to chill out at the end of the day, the tired male brain needs to zone out all that touchy-feely chatter in order to relax -- which is why he wants the remote control to zap through \"mindless\" sport or action movies. His brain takes in less sensory detail than a woman\'s, so he doesn\'t see or even feel the dust and household mess in the same way. Anyhow, the male brain attaches less personal identity to the inside of a home and more to the workplace or the yard -- which is why he doesn\'t get worked up about housework. Male hormones such as testosterone and vasopressin set the male brain up to seek competitive, hierarchical groups in its constant quest to prove self-worth and identity. That is why men, paradoxically (from a hormonally altered new mother\'s point of view), become even more workaholic once they have kids, to whom they must also prove their worth. Back to nature Gurian says his book is aimed mainly at women. \"Men get this already. They are living this brain but they don\'t have the conscious language to explain it. Women are not living it. \"If they are relating to a man, I hope they will be touched, informed and entertained and will have a new vision of the way they can make their relationship work. \"I beg people to go back to nature, look at the PET scans, look at the brain differences and see if it makes sense.\" If it does, the consequences are profound for a generation of \"liberated\" women brought up to believe it is men who have to change, and men who must respond to a female way of relating in order for marriage to succeed. Gurian says men can learn new skills and alter their behaviour but they will not be able to meet all of women\'s expectations. \"Popular culture focuses so much on trying to get people closer. Most people believe that marriages break up because men and women are not close enough. But what I am learning about the brain leads to the idea of intimate separateness, in which the brain seeks less intimacy at times,\" Gurian said. \"People want to love each other. If we can learn who we might be - not what IS he thinking, but what COULD he be thinking - then I am optimistic.\" (Jill Serjeant, Wednesday, Oct 1, 8:07 AM ET, Yahoo News 3/10/03.) Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain By Simon Baron-Cohen Basic Books. 271 pp. $26 Reviewed by Carolyn See, The Washington Post, 5 October 2003,Page BW03 We \"know\" men and women are different; we know it in our collective consciousness, our collective gut. It\'s the stuff of \"Mars and Venus\" and myriad advice columns in the newspapers and weeping wives on \"Oprah\" flanked by stone-faced, shifty-eyed husbands. Women like the ballet, men like cars. Women chat on the phone, men zone out on TV sports. Ninety percent of the murders in America are said to be committed by men. (I suppose women do 90 percent of the retail shopping.) For 20 years, Simon Baron-Cohen has been doing research on gender differences (and autism) but hesitated, he writes in this fascinating book, to mention his theories in public until 1997, because it would have been so impolitic in our climate of gender political correctness. His hypothesis, stated on page one of The Essential Difference, is that male and female brains are different -- not better or worse than each other, just different: \"The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.\" Yet toward the end of this study, the author writes that he \"would weep with disappointment if a reader took home from this book the message that \'all men have lower empathy\' or \'all women have lower systemizing skills.\' \" The operative word here, I think, is \"weep.\" Baron-Cohen\'s concern, after proving the validity of his hypothesis, seems to be for mutual respect between the sexes. He has come up with a fascinating crazy-quilt of studies to prove our sexual differences. From the very first day of life, for instance, given two different images to stare at in the crib - one a smiling woman, the other that same face snipped up and made into an abstract mobile - female babies focus on the face, male babies on the mobile. Baron-Cohen\'s point is that these differences are not culturally based - although they may be reinforced by the culture. They are biological, he says, perhaps genetic in origin. They are, in fact, \"hard-wired\" in us all. This may not be the best news for feminists, who have worked so hard and so long for \"equality.\" The phrase \"separate but equal\" certainly has an odious history. But what if, in fact, men and women really are equal but separate, separate but equal? Put more personally, what if my ex-husband, who never met my eye and conversed mainly in monologues or tirades (but he was darling!) wasn\'t trying to drive me crazy? What if he was just wired that way? What if Prince Charles wasn\'t just being a mannerless churl when, on being asked whether he loved Princess Di, answered with a question about the existence of love? What if men are indeed \"wired that way\"? Reading this bracing study is a lot like drowning; i.e., your whole life passes in front of your eyes. Scene after scene floats up from one\'s twenties, one\'s thirties. Suddenly, after years, the scenes make sense. \"A woman is a gadget you screw in the bed and it does all the housework,\" a guy told me once, kidding on the square. But what if that made sense to him? What if he saw the world in terms of systems instead of humans? What if he was wired that way? Baron-Cohen also hypothesizes an \"extreme male brain,\" which we tend to perceive as autistic. (Four out of five autistics are male; in our new epidemic of autism, as many as one in 87 boys is born with the syndrome.) The autistic child has trouble meeting the gaze of others, is disinclined to talk and often socially clueless. His strong suits are a love of recurring patterns and an extraordinary ability to concentrate. The author suggests that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein - both socially inept but able to discover previously unknown systems - were autistic, possessing \"extreme male\" brains. (Andy Warhol has been said to have Asperger\'s, a disorder sometimes linked to autism - Andy Warhol, my ex-husband\'s cousin. And this book interested me in the first place because I have an autistic grandson.) I thank Simon Baron-Cohen more than I can say for having written this book. It has explained a good part of my own life to me; it\'s made men achingly human to me. But I have to respectfully question half of his hypothesis, the part about the female brain being hard-wired for empathy. Or at least I wish he\'d reworded it, as in \"women are more curious about humans; men are more curious about systems.\" The word \"empathy\" suggests that after you\'ve put yourself in someone else\'s place you feel the need to help him or her, even, at times, to put his or her needs before your own. This is an idea that goes back at least to the time of Adam. It\'s an idea, a wish, I feel certain, that springs directly from the \"male\" brain. I don\'t have studies to draw on. I base my conclusions on my own thoughts, conversations with female friends, and most important, the avalanche of novels - both \"light\" and \"literary\" - written by women since the \'20s, when Julia Peterkin beat out Hemingway for the Pulitzer Prize. Women tend to be devoted to their children, but they\'re not necessarily interested in \"helping\" men through their lives, in serving them or sacrificing for them or even sympathizing with them. (Often, though I hate to say it, and it tends to be invisible to men, women think about themselves.) What a wonderful thing it would have been if the author had worked with a female collaborator who could have shone as bright a light on women as he has on men. 27/11/2003 - News Items Gender Report- 2003 -October Items: * Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage * Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern * A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry * Full-time mums \'need government help\' * Male and female brains are different – social philosopher * Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain, By Simon Baron-Cohen. __________________________________________________________________________________ Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage More women are having children alone, unable to find men willing to commit to marriage or the cost of setting up a household, a study has found. The proportion of single mothers aged 30 to 34 who fell into this category jumped from 17 per cent of female lone parents in 1986 to 42 per cent in 2001, according to the study, released today. Among younger women aged 25 to 29 who were sole parents, the number was even greater, increasing from 37 per cent to 66 per cent over the same period. The author of the Monash University research, Dr Bob Birrell, said this group of single women heralded a new social phenomenon. It also raised concerns about the financial and emotional hardships for the women and children involved. \"It is not the case that these women are unwilling to get married – they would probably quite like to marry,\" Dr Birrell said. \"But the marriage market they\'re operating in contains men who lack the resources to take on the creation of a new household, men who are unwilling to get married or live in a de facto relationship.\" The growing trend of unpartnered women having children is backed by preliminary findings from another study by the Monash team of all exnuptial births in Victoria in 2001. It found that when unmarried new mothers in hospital were asked if they had a de facto partner, almost half said they did not. Dr Birrell said the rapid increase in the number of mothers who had never married and were not in de facto relationships had become a major concern for society because most depended on welfare payments to survive. \"They have much greater difficulties providing for their children because there is little prospect of financial help from the fathers, who tend to be on low incomes and who pay little or no maintenance,\" he said. The study from Monash\'s Centre for Population and Urban Research, which used census data, will be released at the Australian Family Association\'s national conference in Adelaide today. It follows comments from a senior labour market economist earlier this week who said increasing numbers of prime-aged men had become poor marriage prospects because of labour-market changes. Professor Sue Richardson, of Flinders University, told a conference that 35 per cent of Australian men aged 35 to 44 were unmarried and unemployed, compared with 20 per cent in 1978. Professor Richardson said many of these men were shunning marriage or fatherhood because of poor incomes and job prospects. (Caroline Milburn, The Age (Melbourne), 4 October 2003.) Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern Women have overtaken men at every level of education in developed countries around the world. And girls are now more confident of getting better-paid, professional jobs than their flagging male counterparts. International education figures, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistent picture, across cultures and continents, of women achieving better results than men. The OECD survey is a detailed comparison of education achievement and spending in 43 developed countries. The success of girls is a complete reversal of what would have been expected a generation ago, said Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis at the OECD\'s education directorate. And he says that the 1990s have seen a remarkable change in women\'s expectations and achievements. The survey found that in almost every developed country, 15-year-old girls are more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs. For example, in the United Kingdom, 63% of girls expect to have \"white collar, high-skilled\" jobs by the time they are 30, compared to only 51% of boys. This picture of girls with higher expectations than boys is repeated in the United States, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Australia. University challenge And girls have good reason to be more confident than boys, because academically, around the globe, they are more successful - which is likely to lead to higher-income jobs. In literacy skills, 15-year-old girls are ahead of boys in every one of the 43 countries in the OECD survey. In the UK, the gap in literacy scores between girls and boys at this age is 26%. And this school-age gender gap leads to an increasingly stark difference between the success of male and female students in getting into university. In New Zealand, 89% of women enter university, compared to 62% of men. In Iceland, 80% of women go into higher education, compared to 42% of men. In the United Kingdom, the figures for 2001 show that 49% of women entered university, compared to 41% of men. And Andreas Schleicher says that much of the rapid growth in higher education places and the larger number of students staying in education can be directly attributed to this growing academic success of women. But why should boys be falling behind, in so many different countries? Andreas Schleicher says there are \"troubling signs\" that boys are more susceptible to being put off education by disruptions in their home environment. Boys seem less able to overcome obstacles to education, he says, whether it is peer group pressure or a lack of family support. (BBC News, Tuesday, 16 September, 2003.) A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry The Family First Party of South Australia has successfully persuaded the parliament of South Australia to launch a Fatherhood Inquiry. The leader of the party, Pastor Andrew Evans MLC, said the fatherhood inquiry had received the support of every member of the Legislative Council. He was commenting after the Upper House had voted on the proposal yesterday and gave it unanimous support. Andrew Evans said in Parliament: “It is refreshing to see that this House has quite rightly recognised this to be an extremely important issue which impacts not just fathers, but has a flow on effect to mothers, the children, families in general (including extended families) and the community as a whole” The committee will consist of two members from the government, two members of the liberal party, a democrat and Mr Evans. “South Australia is the first state to conduct an inquiry of this type and I am confident that it will be a catalyst for change. I encourage any interested person or organisation to make a submission to the committee. All submissions will receive individual consideration”, said Mr Evans. The committee is scheduled to report to parliament on 3 December 2003. Mr Evans said he was delighted yesterday afternoon to have the full support of every member of the Upper House into an inquiry initiated by Family First concerning the crisis currently facing many fathers. He said that separated fathers committed suicide at a rate of 5 to 1 when compared to mothers. In addition there are one million children currently living without their fathers, and it is costing Australian society around $13 billion per year. The result, he said, was visited on children later in life, and they were more likely to run into problems such as involvement in crime, using drugs, and experiencing poverty, as a result. The Inquiry has the following Terms of Reference:- I That a Select Committee of the Legislative Council be appointed to investigate and report upon:- (a) The status of fathers in South Australia by reference to the current level of recognition of their role in family formation and child rearing and in the support given to them by the public and private sectors and the community in general; (b) The current difficulties facing fathers in South Australia from an economic, social and financial perspective in the formation and maintenance of the family unit; (c) The nature and availability of government and non-government support and services for fathers in crisis in SA. II That standing order 389 be suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only. III That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it thinks fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council. IV That standing order 396 be suspended as to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating. The Committee has a reporting deadline of 3 December 2003, and will be taking submisions and evidence over the coming weeks (South Australia only). The Select Committee consists of the following members:- The Hon. Carmel Zollo MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Gazzola MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Dawkins MLC (LP) The Hon. Michelle Lensink (LP) The Hon. Kate Reynolds MLC (Dem) Comment: This is welcome news indeed! Mr Evans and Family First are to be thoroughly congratulated on this initiative. Let’s hope that other Australian States follow suit, and that the Inquiry enjoys widespread support and success. Full-time mums \'need government help\' The British Government has been urged to help women who wanted to be full-time mothers after new research showed that working mums were disillusioned and stressed out trying to juggle home and work lives. A survey of 2,000 women with young children showed that two out of three would rather be a full time mother than return to work. Those who did work were \"wracked\" with guilt and 92% wished they were at home with their child. Most of the women surveyed by Mother & Baby magazine believed they were missing out on their child\'s early years and many complained of being tired or stressed. One in 10 had none of their salary left after paying for childcare and most still had to do housework or take time off if their child was ill. Research showed that one in three working mothers took an average of 12 days off a year due to stress. Most said they were often too tired for sex and did not have a good social life. Karen Pasquali-Jones, editor of the magazine, said the vast majority of working mothers with young children longed for full-time motherhood. There were Government initiatives to help working mothers, but nothing for women who wanted to stay at home full time with their children, she added. \"The fact is that for many mothers, working is simply not worth their while financially. No wonder many mothers question whether it is worth missing out on their children\'s childhood for a meagre amount.\" (Manumit Exchange, 22/10/03). Male and female brains are different – social philosopher LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It\'s the universal question on many women\'s lips. \"What could he be thinking?\" she shrieks, or sighs or sulks at her husband, boyfriend or son. What is it with men and cars? Why doesn\'t he notice how much housework needs to be done? Why does he need to keep a grip on the remote control? And the most bewildering one of all -- why won\'t he just talk to me? The answers, says social philosopher and author Michael Gurian, lie not in laziness, sexism or sheer pigheadedness but in profound differences between the male and female brain -- and scientists now have the technology to prove it. \"What Could He Be Thinking? How a Man\'s Mind Really Works,\" combines two decades of neurobiological research with anecdotes from everyday life and Gurian\'s experience as a family therapist to present a new vision of the male psyche. It\'s a vision that Gurian hopes will help promote a better understanding of men and reverse what he sees as the dangerous assumption born of the past 40 years of radical femininism that men have simply become redundant. \"As a culture, we\'ve made profound mistakes in the last few decades by assuming that men were unnecessary. Many people have even gone so far as to negate or dismiss what is at the core of a man,\" Gurian writes. Gurian, author of the 1996 groundbreaking book \"The Wonder of Boys\" and its follow-up \"The Wonder of Girls,\" is no anti-feminist. He is married with two daughters, and his book mines the field of brain science to help improve relations between couples. Culture plays a part, but Gurian argues that biology matters much more than previously realised. \"The science has been crucial. Wherever I go, I start by showing PET scans and people can see for themselves the differences between the male and female brain. I think that alters life and marriages,\" Gurian told Reuters. The science part Such are the advances in technology and understanding that PET radioactive-imaging and MRI magnetic-imaging scans can now show whether a man and a woman are truly in love by measuring the amount of activity in the cingulate gyrus, an emotion centre in the brain, Gurian says. Like a guide through a secret forest, his book leads the nonscientist through the complex world of brain science and relates it to some of the most frustrating sources of conflict between men and women in long-term relationships. The male brain secretes less of the powerful primary bonding chemical oxytocin and less of the calming chemical serotonin than the female brain. So while women find emotional conversations a good way to chill out at the end of the day, the tired male brain needs to zone out all that touchy-feely chatter in order to relax -- which is why he wants the remote control to zap through \"mindless\" sport or action movies. His brain takes in less sensory detail than a woman\'s, so he doesn\'t see or even feel the dust and household mess in the same way. Anyhow, the male brain attaches less personal identity to the inside of a home and more to the workplace or the yard -- which is why he doesn\'t get worked up about housework. Male hormones such as testosterone and vasopressin set the male brain up to seek competitive, hierarchical groups in its constant quest to prove self-worth and identity. That is why men, paradoxically (from a hormonally altered new mother\'s point of view), become even more workaholic once they have kids, to whom they must also prove their worth. Back to nature Gurian says his book is aimed mainly at women. \"Men get this already. They are living this brain but they don\'t have the conscious language to explain it. Women are not living it. \"If they are relating to a man, I hope they will be touched, informed and entertained and will have a new vision of the way they can make their relationship work. \"I beg people to go back to nature, look at the PET scans, look at the brain differences and see if it makes sense.\" If it does, the consequences are profound for a generation of \"liberated\" women brought up to believe it is men who have to change, and men who must respond to a female way of relating in order for marriage to succeed. Gurian says men can learn new skills and alter their behaviour but they will not be able to meet all of women\'s expectations. \"Popular culture focuses so much on trying to get people closer. Most people believe that marriages break up because men and women are not close enough. But what I am learning about the brain leads to the idea of intimate separateness, in which the brain seeks less intimacy at times,\" Gurian said. \"People want to love each other. If we can learn who we might be - not what IS he thinking, but what COULD he be thinking - then I am optimistic.\" (Jill Serjeant, Wednesday, Oct 1, 8:07 AM ET, Yahoo News 3/10/03.) Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain By Simon Baron-Cohen Basic Books. 271 pp. $26 Reviewed by Carolyn See, The Washington Post, 5 October 2003,Page BW03 We \"know\" men and women are different; we know it in our collective consciousness, our collective gut. It\'s the stuff of \"Mars and Venus\" and myriad advice columns in the newspapers and weeping wives on \"Oprah\" flanked by stone-faced, shifty-eyed husbands. Women like the ballet, men like cars. Women chat on the phone, men zone out on TV sports. Ninety percent of the murders in America are said to be committed by men. (I suppose women do 90 percent of the retail shopping.) For 20 years, Simon Baron-Cohen has been doing research on gender differences (and autism) but hesitated, he writes in this fascinating book, to mention his theories in public until 1997, because it would have been so impolitic in our climate of gender political correctness. His hypothesis, stated on page one of The Essential Difference, is that male and female brains are different -- not better or worse than each other, just different: \"The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.\" Yet toward the end of this study, the author writes that he \"would weep with disappointment if a reader took home from this book the message that \'all men have lower empathy\' or \'all women have lower systemizing skills.\' \" The operative word here, I think, is \"weep.\" Baron-Cohen\'s concern, after proving the validity of his hypothesis, seems to be for mutual respect between the sexes. He has come up with a fascinating crazy-quilt of studies to prove our sexual differences. From the very first day of life, for instance, given two different images to stare at in the crib - one a smiling woman, the other that same face snipped up and made into an abstract mobile - female babies focus on the face, male babies on the mobile. Baron-Cohen\'s point is that these differences are not culturally based - although they may be reinforced by the culture. They are biological, he says, perhaps genetic in origin. They are, in fact, \"hard-wired\" in us all. This may not be the best news for feminists, who have worked so hard and so long for \"equality.\" The phrase \"separate but equal\" certainly has an odious history. But what if, in fact, men and women really are equal but separate, separate but equal? Put more personally, what if my ex-husband, who never met my eye and conversed mainly in monologues or tirades (but he was darling!) wasn\'t trying to drive me crazy? What if he was just wired that way? What if Prince Charles wasn\'t just being a mannerless churl when, on being asked whether he loved Princess Di, answered with a question about the existence of love? What if men are indeed \"wired that way\"? Reading this bracing study is a lot like drowning; i.e., your whole life passes in front of your eyes. Scene after scene floats up from one\'s twenties, one\'s thirties. Suddenly, after years, the scenes make sense. \"A woman is a gadget you screw in the bed and it does all the housework,\" a guy told me once, kidding on the square. But what if that made sense to him? What if he saw the world in terms of systems instead of humans? What if he was wired that way? Baron-Cohen also hypothesizes an \"extreme male brain,\" which we tend to perceive as autistic. (Four out of five autistics are male; in our new epidemic of autism, as many as one in 87 boys is born with the syndrome.) The autistic child has trouble meeting the gaze of others, is disinclined to talk and often socially clueless. His strong suits are a love of recurring patterns and an extraordinary ability to concentrate. The author suggests that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein - both socially inept but able to discover previously unknown systems - were autistic, possessing \"extreme male\" brains. (Andy Warhol has been said to have Asperger\'s, a disorder sometimes linked to autism - Andy Warhol, my ex-husband\'s cousin. And this book interested me in the first place because I have an autistic grandson.) I thank Simon Baron-Cohen more than I can say for having written this book. It has explained a good part of my own life to me; it\'s made men achingly human to me. But I have to respectfully question half of his hypothesis, the part about the female brain being hard-wired for empathy. Or at least I wish he\'d reworded it, as in \"women are more curious about humans; men are more curious about systems.\" The word \"empathy\" suggests that after you\'ve put yourself in someone else\'s place you feel the need to help him or her, even, at times, to put his or her needs before your own. This is an idea that goes back at least to the time of Adam. It\'s an idea, a wish, I feel certain, that springs directly from the \"male\" brain. I don\'t have studies to draw on. I base my conclusions on my own thoughts, conversations with female friends, and most important, the avalanche of novels - both \"light\" and \"literary\" - written by women since the \'20s, when Julia Peterkin beat out Hemingway for the Pulitzer Prize. Women tend to be devoted to their children, but they\'re not necessarily interested in \"helping\" men through their lives, in serving them or sacrificing for them or even sympathizing with them. (Often, though I hate to say it, and it tends to be invisible to men, women think about themselves.) What a wonderful thing it would have been if the author had worked with a female collaborator who could have shone as bright a light on women as he has on men. 27/11/2003 - News Items 2003 Gender Report for October Items: * Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage * Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern * A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry * Full-time mums \'need government help\' * Male and female brains are different – social philosopher * Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain, By Simon Baron-Cohen. __________________________________________________________________________________ Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage More women are having children alone, unable to find men willing to commit to marriage or the cost of setting up a household, a study has found. The proportion of single mothers aged 30 to 34 who fell into this category jumped from 17 per cent of female lone parents in 1986 to 42 per cent in 2001, according to the study, released today. Among younger women aged 25 to 29 who were sole parents, the number was even greater, increasing from 37 per cent to 66 per cent over the same period. The author of the Monash University research, Dr Bob Birrell, said this group of single women heralded a new social phenomenon. It also raised concerns about the financial and emotional hardships for the women and children involved. \"It is not the case that these women are unwilling to get married – they would probably quite like to marry,\" Dr Birrell said. \"But the marriage market they\'re operating in contains men who lack the resources to take on the creation of a new household, men who are unwilling to get married or live in a de facto relationship.\" The growing trend of unpartnered women having children is backed by preliminary findings from another study by the Monash team of all exnuptial births in Victoria in 2001. It found that when unmarried new mothers in hospital were asked if they had a de facto partner, almost half said they did not. Dr Birrell said the rapid increase in the number of mothers who had never married and were not in de facto relationships had become a major concern for society because most depended on welfare payments to survive. \"They have much greater difficulties providing for their children because there is little prospect of financial help from the fathers, who tend to be on low incomes and who pay little or no maintenance,\" he said. The study from Monash\'s Centre for Population and Urban Research, which used census data, will be released at the Australian Family Association\'s national conference in Adelaide today. It follows comments from a senior labour market economist earlier this week who said increasing numbers of prime-aged men had become poor marriage prospects because of labour-market changes. Professor Sue Richardson, of Flinders University, told a conference that 35 per cent of Australian men aged 35 to 44 were unmarried and unemployed, compared with 20 per cent in 1978. Professor Richardson said many of these men were shunning marriage or fatherhood because of poor incomes and job prospects. (Caroline Milburn, The Age (Melbourne), 4 October 2003.) Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern Women have overtaken men at every level of education in developed countries around the world. And girls are now more confident of getting better-paid, professional jobs than their flagging male counterparts. International education figures, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistent picture, across cultures and continents, of women achieving better results than men. The OECD survey is a detailed comparison of education achievement and spending in 43 developed countries. The success of girls is a complete reversal of what would have been expected a generation ago, said Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis at the OECD\'s education directorate. And he says that the 1990s have seen a remarkable change in women\'s expectations and achievements. The survey found that in almost every developed country, 15-year-old girls are more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs. For example, in the United Kingdom, 63% of girls expect to have \"white collar, high-skilled\" jobs by the time they are 30, compared to only 51% of boys. This picture of girls with higher expectations than boys is repeated in the United States, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Australia. University challenge And girls have good reason to be more confident than boys, because academically, around the globe, they are more successful - which is likely to lead to higher-income jobs. In literacy skills, 15-year-old girls are ahead of boys in every one of the 43 countries in the OECD survey. In the UK, the gap in literacy scores between girls and boys at this age is 26%. And this school-age gender gap leads to an increasingly stark difference between the success of male and female students in getting into university. In New Zealand, 89% of women enter university, compared to 62% of men. In Iceland, 80% of women go into higher education, compared to 42% of men. In the United Kingdom, the figures for 2001 show that 49% of women entered university, compared to 41% of men. And Andreas Schleicher says that much of the rapid growth in higher education places and the larger number of students staying in education can be directly attributed to this growing academic success of women. But why should boys be falling behind, in so many different countries? Andreas Schleicher says there are \"troubling signs\" that boys are more susceptible to being put off education by disruptions in their home environment. Boys seem less able to overcome obstacles to education, he says, whether it is peer group pressure or a lack of family support. (BBC News, Tuesday, 16 September, 2003.) A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry The Family First Party of South Australia has successfully persuaded the parliament of South Australia to launch a Fatherhood Inquiry. The leader of the party, Pastor Andrew Evans MLC, said the fatherhood inquiry had received the support of every member of the Legislative Council. He was commenting after the Upper House had voted on the proposal yesterday and gave it unanimous support. Andrew Evans said in Parliament: “It is refreshing to see that this House has quite rightly recognised this to be an extremely important issue which impacts not just fathers, but has a flow on effect to mothers, the children, families in general (including extended families) and the community as a whole” The committee will consist of two members from the government, two members of the liberal party, a democrat and Mr Evans. “South Australia is the first state to conduct an inquiry of this type and I am confident that it will be a catalyst for change. I encourage any interested person or organisation to make a submission to the committee. All submissions will receive individual consideration”, said Mr Evans. The committee is scheduled to report to parliament on 3 December 2003. Mr Evans said he was delighted yesterday afternoon to have the full support of every member of the Upper House into an inquiry initiated by Family First concerning the crisis currently facing many fathers. He said that separated fathers committed suicide at a rate of 5 to 1 when compared to mothers. In addition there are one million children currently living without their fathers, and it is costing Australian society around $13 billion per year. The result, he said, was visited on children later in life, and they were more likely to run into problems such as involvement in crime, using drugs, and experiencing poverty, as a result. The Inquiry has the following Terms of Reference:- I That a Select Committee of the Legislative Council be appointed to investigate and report upon:- (a) The status of fathers in South Australia by reference to the current level of recognition of their role in family formation and child rearing and in the support given to them by the public and private sectors and the community in general; (b) The current difficulties facing fathers in South Australia from an economic, social and financial perspective in the formation and maintenance of the family unit; (c) The nature and availability of government and non-government support and services for fathers in crisis in SA. II That standing order 389 be suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only. III That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it thinks fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council. IV That standing order 396 be suspended as to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating. The Committee has a reporting deadline of 3 December 2003, and will be taking submisions and evidence over the coming weeks (South Australia only). The Select Committee consists of the following members:- The Hon. Carmel Zollo MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Gazzola MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Dawkins MLC (LP) The Hon. Michelle Lensink (LP) The Hon. Kate Reynolds MLC (Dem) Comment: This is welcome news indeed! Mr Evans and Family First are to be thoroughly congratulated on this initiative. Let’s hope that other Australian States follow suit, and that the Inquiry enjoys widespread support and success. Full-time mums \'need government help\' The British Government has been urged to help women who wanted to be full-time mothers after new research showed that working mums were disillusioned and stressed out trying to juggle home and work lives. A survey of 2,000 women with young children showed that two out of three would rather be a full time mother than return to work. Those who did work were \"wracked\" with guilt and 92% wished they were at home with their child. Most of the women surveyed by Mother & Baby magazine believed they were missing out on their child\'s early years and many complained of being tired or stressed. One in 10 had none of their salary left after paying for childcare and most still had to do housework or take time off if their child was ill. Research showed that one in three working mothers took an average of 12 days off a year due to stress. Most said they were often too tired for sex and did not have a good social life. Karen Pasquali-Jones, editor of the magazine, said the vast majority of working mothers with young children longed for full-time motherhood. There were Government initiatives to help working mothers, but nothing for women who wanted to stay at home full time with their children, she added. \"The fact is that for many mothers, working is simply not worth their while financially. No wonder many mothers question whether it is worth missing out on their children\'s childhood for a meagre amount.\" (Manumit Exchange, 22/10/03). Male and female brains are different – social philosopher LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It\'s the universal question on many women\'s lips. \"What could he be thinking?\" she shrieks, or sighs or sulks at her husband, boyfriend or son. What is it with men and cars? Why doesn\'t he notice how much housework needs to be done? Why does he need to keep a grip on the remote control? And the most bewildering one of all -- why won\'t he just talk to me? The answers, says social philosopher and author Michael Gurian, lie not in laziness, sexism or sheer pigheadedness but in profound differences between the male and female brain -- and scientists now have the technology to prove it. \"What Could He Be Thinking? How a Man\'s Mind Really Works,\" combines two decades of neurobiological research with anecdotes from everyday life and Gurian\'s experience as a family therapist to present a new vision of the male psyche. It\'s a vision that Gurian hopes will help promote a better understanding of men and reverse what he sees as the dangerous assumption born of the past 40 years of radical femininism that men have simply become redundant. \"As a culture, we\'ve made profound mistakes in the last few decades by assuming that men were unnecessary. Many people have even gone so far as to negate or dismiss what is at the core of a man,\" Gurian writes. Gurian, author of the 1996 groundbreaking book \"The Wonder of Boys\" and its follow-up \"The Wonder of Girls,\" is no anti-feminist. He is married with two daughters, and his book mines the field of brain science to help improve relations between couples. Culture plays a part, but Gurian argues that biology matters much more than previously realised. \"The science has been crucial. Wherever I go, I start by showing PET scans and people can see for themselves the differences between the male and female brain. I think that alters life and marriages,\" Gurian told Reuters. The science part Such are the advances in technology and understanding that PET radioactive-imaging and MRI magnetic-imaging scans can now show whether a man and a woman are truly in love by measuring the amount of activity in the cingulate gyrus, an emotion centre in the brain, Gurian says. Like a guide through a secret forest, his book leads the nonscientist through the complex world of brain science and relates it to some of the most frustrating sources of conflict between men and women in long-term relationships. The male brain secretes less of the powerful primary bonding chemical oxytocin and less of the calming chemical serotonin than the female brain. So while women find emotional conversations a good way to chill out at the end of the day, the tired male brain needs to zone out all that touchy-feely chatter in order to relax -- which is why he wants the remote control to zap through \"mindless\" sport or action movies. His brain takes in less sensory detail than a woman\'s, so he doesn\'t see or even feel the dust and household mess in the same way. Anyhow, the male brain attaches less personal identity to the inside of a home and more to the workplace or the yard -- which is why he doesn\'t get worked up about housework. Male hormones such as testosterone and vasopressin set the male brain up to seek competitive, hierarchical groups in its constant quest to prove self-worth and identity. That is why men, paradoxically (from a hormonally altered new mother\'s point of view), become even more workaholic once they have kids, to whom they must also prove their worth. Back to nature Gurian says his book is aimed mainly at women. \"Men get this already. They are living this brain but they don\'t have the conscious language to explain it. Women are not living it. \"If they are relating to a man, I hope they will be touched, informed and entertained and will have a new vision of the way they can make their relationship work. \"I beg people to go back to nature, look at the PET scans, look at the brain differences and see if it makes sense.\" If it does, the consequences are profound for a generation of \"liberated\" women brought up to believe it is men who have to change, and men who must respond to a female way of relating in order for marriage to succeed. Gurian says men can learn new skills and alter their behaviour but they will not be able to meet all of women\'s expectations. \"Popular culture focuses so much on trying to get people closer. Most people believe that marriages break up because men and women are not close enough. But what I am learning about the brain leads to the idea of intimate separateness, in which the brain seeks less intimacy at times,\" Gurian said. \"People want to love each other. If we can learn who we might be - not what IS he thinking, but what COULD he be thinking - then I am optimistic.\" (Jill Serjeant, Wednesday, Oct 1, 8:07 AM ET, Yahoo News 3/10/03.) Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain By Simon Baron-Cohen Basic Books. 271 pp. $26 Reviewed by Carolyn See, The Washington Post, 5 October 2003,Page BW03 We \"know\" men and women are different; we know it in our collective consciousness, our collective gut. It\'s the stuff of \"Mars and Venus\" and myriad advice columns in the newspapers and weeping wives on \"Oprah\" flanked by stone-faced, shifty-eyed husbands. Women like the ballet, men like cars. Women chat on the phone, men zone out on TV sports. Ninety percent of the murders in America are said to be committed by men. (I suppose women do 90 percent of the retail shopping.) For 20 years, Simon Baron-Cohen has been doing research on gender differences (and autism) but hesitated, he writes in this fascinating book, to mention his theories in public until 1997, because it would have been so impolitic in our climate of gender political correctness. His hypothesis, stated on page one of The Essential Difference, is that male and female brains are different -- not better or worse than each other, just different: \"The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.\" Yet toward the end of this study, the author writes that he \"would weep with disappointment if a reader took home from this book the message that \'all men have lower empathy\' or \'all women have lower systemizing skills.\' \" The operative word here, I think, is \"weep.\" Baron-Cohen\'s concern, after proving the validity of his hypothesis, seems to be for mutual respect between the sexes. He has come up with a fascinating crazy-quilt of studies to prove our sexual differences. From the very first day of life, for instance, given two different images to stare at in the crib - one a smiling woman, the other that same face snipped up and made into an abstract mobile - female babies focus on the face, male babies on the mobile. Baron-Cohen\'s point is that these differences are not culturally based - although they may be reinforced by the culture. They are biological, he says, perhaps genetic in origin. They are, in fact, \"hard-wired\" in us all. This may not be the best news for feminists, who have worked so hard and so long for \"equality.\" The phrase \"separate but equal\" certainly has an odious history. But what if, in fact, men and women really are equal but separate, separate but equal? Put more personally, what if my ex-husband, who never met my eye and conversed mainly in monologues or tirades (but he was darling!) wasn\'t trying to drive me crazy? What if he was just wired that way? What if Prince Charles wasn\'t just being a mannerless churl when, on being asked whether he loved Princess Di, answered with a question about the existence of love? What if men are indeed \"wired that way\"? Reading this bracing study is a lot like drowning; i.e., your whole life passes in front of your eyes. Scene after scene floats up from one\'s twenties, one\'s thirties. Suddenly, after years, the scenes make sense. \"A woman is a gadget you screw in the bed and it does all the housework,\" a guy told me once, kidding on the square. But what if that made sense to him? What if he saw the world in terms of systems instead of humans? What if he was wired that way? Baron-Cohen also hypothesizes an \"extreme male brain,\" which we tend to perceive as autistic. (Four out of five autistics are male; in our new epidemic of autism, as many as one in 87 boys is born with the syndrome.) The autistic child has trouble meeting the gaze of others, is disinclined to talk and often socially clueless. His strong suits are a love of recurring patterns and an extraordinary ability to concentrate. The author suggests that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein - both socially inept but able to discover previously unknown systems - were autistic, possessing \"extreme male\" brains. (Andy Warhol has been said to have Asperger\'s, a disorder sometimes linked to autism - Andy Warhol, my ex-husband\'s cousin. And this book interested me in the first place because I have an autistic grandson.) I thank Simon Baron-Cohen more than I can say for having written this book. It has explained a good part of my own life to me; it\'s made men achingly human to me. But I have to respectfully question half of his hypothesis, the part about the female brain being hard-wired for empathy. Or at least I wish he\'d reworded it, as in \"women are more curious about humans; men are more curious about systems.\" The word \"empathy\" suggests that after you\'ve put yourself in someone else\'s place you feel the need to help him or her, even, at times, to put his or her needs before your own. This is an idea that goes back at least to the time of Adam. It\'s an idea, a wish, I feel certain, that springs directly from the \"male\" brain. I don\'t have studies to draw on. I base my conclusions on my own thoughts, conversations with female friends, and most important, the avalanche of novels - both \"light\" and \"literary\" - written by women since the \'20s, when Julia Peterkin beat out Hemingway for the Pulitzer Prize. Women tend to be devoted to their children, but they\'re not necessarily interested in \"helping\" men through their lives, in serving them or sacrificing for them or even sympathizing with them. (Often, though I hate to say it, and it tends to be invisible to men, women think about themselves.) What a wonderful thing it would have been if the author had worked with a female collaborator who could have shone as bright a light on women as he has on men. 27/11/2003 - News Items September 2003 Gender Report The Australian Gender Report September 2003. date. 2st October 2003 Compiled by Alan Barron, Convenor, The Institute of Men’s Studies, Australia Website: www.mioms.com __________________________________________________ Quote of the Month: \"The quality of maleness and femaleness is intimately woven into the overall fabric of personality. Human beings are not biologically bisexual. The human spirit is greatly impaired when childhood development does not lead to fully developed masculinity or femininity. Fully masculine men and feminine women are by definition mature, and that term implies the ability to live out one\'s abilities. These include the capacity to mate, live in harmony with a member of the opposite sex, and carry out the responsibilities of parenthood. The fate of mankind depends on the durability of the heterosexual relationship, and the stability and integrity of family life\". (Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst Harold Voth.) On this day: 322BC Aristotle dies from stomach illness 1835 Texans take up arms against Mexico 1931 Death of Sir Thomas Lipton, business tycoon and yachtsman 1950 Peanuts comic strip is born Birthdays: 1869 Mahatam Gandhi 1904 Graham Greene, famous author Items: * Jobless, single males a `threat to society’ * Men vilified in media * Metrosexuals a `myth’ * Girls flock to private schools * Why men stray * Tasmanian homosexual registrar * Britain: Early school age linked to disorders __________________________________________________ Jobless, single males a `threat to society’ Increasing numbers of men in their prime have neither full-time jobs, wives nor children and pose a threat to society, a senior labour market economist says. Professor Sue Richardson, of the National Institute of Labour Studies at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, said Australia was re-creating an underclass \"of the excluded and the dangerous\" not seen since the late 19th century. \"Back then, large numbers of men were excluded from secure jobs, never got to be fathers - at least officially - and were a menace to society.\" Speaking at the Conference of Economists in Canberra yesterday, she said labour-market changes accounted for the rise of single or divorced men who were poor marriage prospects. They were unemployed or reliant on part-time or casual work. Subsequently, many were forgoing fatherhood. She said 35 per cent of Australian men aged 35 to 44 in 2003 were not married and did not not have a full-time job. This compared with 20 per cent in 1978. Half the men aged 25 to 34 had not done what men in that age group had traditionally done: found a full-time job, married and had children. In 1978, only 30 per cent were not on that path. \"This is an extraordinary decline,\" Professor Richardson said in an interview. \"Men of prime parenting age who are married and employed full-time are a threatened species.\" While lifestyle choice might be part of the story, Professor Richardson said, changes in the labour market had made it increasingly hard for \"sizeable numbers\" of men to find secure full-time jobs; particularly men with no post-school education who could not find full-time work after they lost jobs in the declining manufacturing sector. The official jobless rate of 5.8 per cent failed to capture the full picture, as it counted as \"employed\" people who had worked as little an hour a week, Professor Richardson said. In the 25 to 54 age bracket, full-time employment among men had fallen more than 10 percentage points since 1976. At least two men in every 10 in these key \"family formation\" years were not in full-time jobs. \"Some are unemployed, others are in part-time jobs and some are not in the workforce at all,\" Professor Richardson said. \"But whatever they are doing, they are scarcely in a position to become fathers, unless they can find a wife who can support the family.\" Women were not stepping in to take on the breadwinning work vacated by men. The proportion of married women who worked full-time had hardly changed. One consequence was that the fertility rate, at 1.7 children per woman, was the lowest on record. While an \"alarming\" 18 per cent of children lived in a household with no employed parent, the growth was in sole-mother families, not couple families. Jobless men, it seemed, had chosen to forgo fatherhood. Australia\'s answer to labour-market changes had been to offer men unemployment benefits. \"We ought to be offering them full-time jobs,\" Professor Richardson said. (Adele Horin, SMH, October 2, 2003.) Men vilified in media Males are increasingly portrayed in the media as either incompetent, repressed or villains. Are they the new victims of gender stereotyping? Riding on the back of his fine Arab or Valiant charger, the hard-fighting, tough-talking macho man still saves the day fairly regularly. But in media targeted at women, stereotypes are more likely to depict men as bungling, incompetent, fall guys in the workplace — and in relationships. Negative images of men are prevalent in advertisements, news, television drama and films. Their effect? Blokes are starting to mobilise with rumblings of complaint. The Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB), one of the few organisations that measures gripes about stereotypes in the media, reports a steady increase in the percentage of men (now more than one third) complaining and one of their most frequent grumbles is about the way men are portrayed. In the first six months of 2003, 29 per cent of complaints about sexual discrimination in advertising were from men. A survey conducted for the ASB in 2002, revealed that while 40 per cent of all complainants thought women were portrayed offensively, 23 per cent were offended by the depiction of men. The ads that appalled focus groups — both women and men — were those that showed men as \"buffoons\" or \"idiots\", according to the researcher, Dr Debora Harker. Paul Rees-Jones, director of strategic planning at George Patterson Bates advertising agency, said advertisements that ridiculed men had been around for 10 to 15 years. Recent examples include the himbo in Diet Coke ads, the idiot in Coon light cheese, and the selfish father and son in a Kraft cheese advertisement. A television advertisement for Just Jeans recently showed a man cowering from a spider until a woman saves him. Rees-Jones said staff had dubbed the genre, \"the Homer Syndrome\", in dishonour of the hapless Homer Simpson. John Marsden, the best selling adolescent fiction writer, and author of the non-fiction books Secret Men’s Business and The Boy You Brought Home, says teenage boys are also among the most maligned group in our society. \"They are more maligned than any other age group and gender. The media portrays them as either drug-crazed, illiterate, unemployable, suicidal, failing at school, sex criminals or vandals. So adults tend to treat them more suspiciously and that causes them (unconsciously) to become angry or frustrated or alienated.\" Then there’s the pairing of the bumbling male and the confident woman. While this stereotype is as old as the first approach made by a nervous man to a beautiful woman, it has become much more prevalent in recent years. \"There are many shows that portray boys being incompetent or stupid in relation to girls. It’s such a boring, tired old joke about boys. And I think it damages their confidence,\" said Marsden. In The Secret Life of Us, female characters like Claudia Karvan’s Alex, tend to be more forthright in relationships, inevitably morally right, and more organised than the often confused and defensive, sensitive male characters like Evan. \"I should feel guilty about feeling guilty,\" he declared in a recent episode. Men prefer to cop jokes and criticisms on the chin but an increasing number are becoming disgruntled if not offended by some stereotypes. Colin Bailey, 33, says he stopped watching television two years ago \"because of all the shows that just show men trying to appease women. Even shows like Malcolm in the Middle, Everybody Loves Raymond and Gilmore Girls. And once you realise that bias is in them, you can’t watch them. It’s as if men don’t make decisions in this society. They’re like boys who do as they’re told.\" Bailey said his mates used to chide him until he challenged them to look for the bias. If programs often portray men as repressed, they equally often show empowered women expecting and asking more from men. Popular sitcoms like Sex and the City, feature women avidly browsing for men, assessing them over coffee, and, sooner or later, moving on out of disappointment. Unlike the men, the heroines rarely get dumped or criticised by their partners. And the show almost encourages women to play the field with a more detached and critical approach. The men are either rich, \"Mr Bigs\", nice, patient, sensitive guys, or else \"toxic bachelors\" and \"himbos\" with all manner of bad habits in bed. Candace Bushnell said of the series spawned by her book: \"It changed the way women look at themselves and the way they look at men. I see it as a subtle feminist tool, a stealth bomber, a secret feminist message.\" Another theme is the idea that women have been too self-sacrificing or too servile towards men and not focused enough on their own pleasure. In The Bride Stripped Bare, a diary of an Australian woman’s adultery, currently on best seller lists, author Nikki Gemmell partly justifies her increasing infidelity by asking, \"Why are (women) so focused on everyone else’s pleasure at the expense of their own? What happens if they try to live selfishly?\" Her presumption is that men do not also sacrifice or repress their desires, and that self sacrifice is not an Anglo Saxon, post-Christian, and even, Australian character flaw. In a latter day form of witch-hunting, the mere word of a woman, and the possible infidelity of a man, is enough to make headlines, whether for Shane Warne or Bill Clinton. In sitcoms, men are sometimes regaled for not wanting enough sex. In the media, men are charged with wanting too much sex. Shows like Buffy, Angel, Charmed, and Alias — despite repeating a Hollywood formula of violence against the ugly — have attained feminist approval because they display women’s power over men. There are female villains, and supportive men, but the balance is skewed in favour of female heroines and male villains. \"(Female) slayers are rising everywhere,\" announced Buffy in the final episode of the last series after she and her sisters, with the help of a few men, fought off a horde of male vampires from hell. The question is whether images of evil men and (counter) attacking women are having an influence on attitudes and relationships. Are they likely to make women more suspicious of men or to encourage women to attack like Buffy the Vampire Slayer if men appear out of line? Another issue is whether such images increase male resentment and erode their self-esteem. A theory is that the print media may contain more prejudicial generalisations about men partly because women dominate the writing field about relationships and because in an article, unlike a drama, there is no dialogue and, therefore, less need to paint even half-real male characters. Dr Kerry Hempenstall, senior lecturer in psychology at RMIT University, asks \"when does positive discrimination towards women, lead to negative impacts for men.\" Criticism of female stereotypes and what they implied about men’s attitudes, was an important platform of early feminism. It would be more than ironic if men were criticised for questioning current media stereotypes of men and relationships. The other option for men, and one they seem to prefer, is to change the channel or turn the page and tune in to the relatively uncontested battles of sport. (Andrew Bock, as reported on Eddie McGuire newsletter, 5/9/03.) Metrosexual a myth Metrosexuals are a myth, leading men’s health educator Phil Gouldson said although the term had been coined several months ago, men’s ideas of masculinity were as traditional as ever. “Labels like metrosexual and SNAG’s (Sensitive New Age Guy) are not really driven by a moment by men or a shift by men. They’re quite often driven by the media or commercialization wanting men to be more conscious of the way they dress and things like that,” he said. Speaking from a men’s health conference in Cairns, Gouldson said he was disappointed few programs had helped men adjust to their changing role. He said men still believed they should be strong, tough and define their sense of self success at work. He said confusion about their role in society drove some people to alcohol, drugs, violence, anger and depression. (MX, 9/9/03 page 1.) Comment: It’s disappointing that a leading men’s advocate – like so many others - doesn’t apparently understand male psychology. Men do think a certain way and while socialization may influence it, it does not alter basic male patterns of thinking.. It’s so galling to read of the ignorance of men regarding their own psychology. It is better to swim with the tide, to understand it and harness it, rather than do a King Cunate and order the tide to go back. Why men stray Eric Benet, husband of the actor Halle Berry, was recently treated for sexual addiction (to women other than his wife) in an exclusive rehabilitation centre in Arizona; Ben Affleck reportedly signed a pre-nuptial agreement promising fidelity to Jennifer Lopez after an infamous romp with strippers — the couple has since split; Michael Douglas is said to be a reformed sex addict. Males are hardwired to chase sex on the side. Right? Wrong, say the experts. Lisa Mitchell reports. He snapped at the leash and was unfaithful with a casual acquaintance. \"Why?\" howls his partner. \"I don\'t know why,\" he barks back. We like to tell ourselves that men stray because they are hardwired for sex. But Australian sex therapists refute this. Most men are unfaithful because they crave intimacy and can\'t find it, they say. Some, of course, just lack self-control, morals and good sense. Ironically, men — unlike women — tend to use sex as an escape route from their problems. And unless men can learn to communicate their needs verbally, instead of sexually, the charge of infidelity that causes about 20 per cent of marriage breakdowns, seems likely to continue. It\'s time for a call to arms. Leading the way is Chris Dawson, a therapist with counselling service Acumen, who says men need to be able to explore their feelings within their relationships, before they resort to sex outside them. \"From an early age, men are taught to be disconnected from their internal worlds, from themselves,\" says Dawson. \"Women are also socialised to expect men to be strong and not to buckle. So often, when men become vulnerable, women shut them down ... we all handle it very badly. It\'s a common scenario.\" According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies survey of 650 divorced men and women — Towards Understanding the Reasons for Divorce, June 1999 — 20 per cent said infidelity was the main cause for their marriage breakdowns but it it came third on the list of reasons given for divorce, after communication problems and incompatibility. Clearly, not talking leads to him walking. At the same time, men rarely find the comfort they are seeking through affairs. Those who try counselling say that extramarital sex only compounds their feelings of guilt, isolation and despair, which often leads to depression. Those starved of intimacy at home sometimes develop sex addictions, in the same way that bulimics binge harder, with zero relief. The cheater, like the bulimic, is hopelessly trying to fill an emotional void. Women are fortunate in that they are able to find satisfying emotional connections through networks of friends as well as a deep, physical and emotional intimacy through their children, particularly newborns and toddlers, says Jane Keany, a sex therapist and social worker. But in our man-as-pillar society, sex is often the only way men can achieve emotional closeness, she says. \"Having more sex can become a desperate search to fill that void.\" Dawson is amazed at the number of men he sees who have no close male friends with whom they might discuss their fears and problems. \"By the age of 40, most men don\'t have intimate male friends. These are just my own observations. But so many of the men I see might have people to play golf with, or to get along with, but they don\'t have an intimate connection with another man. We lose the capacity (to form strong male bonds) because we\'re taught (by society) to disconnect from ourselves. We keep practising that, so by the time we reach 40, we\'re better at it.\" In spite of our best efforts to introduce the sensitive, new-age guy into society, there remains a backbone of Generation X and baby boomer men for whom a good cry or whinge about life remains taboo. As they age, this group is bombarded with unrealistic stereotypes of their sexuality. Consider celebrity sex addict Michael Douglas, who recharges the myth of man as proud sex machine or Sean Connery and Harrison Ford, still playing romantic leads to relatively dewy younger women (Catherine Zeta Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer) in their movies. \"The hydraulic model of male sexuality, that it\'s an inevitable force that must have release, I think, is largely nonsense,\" says Dr Anthony Smith, a public health researcher at the Melbourne-based Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. \"A lot of ideas that support that notion come from media representation that shows men as endlessly desiring and capable. And part of that is being reflected in the uptake of things like testosterone therapy that seeks to return men to the sexual prowess of an 18 year-old rather than accepting that as we age, we change ... It renders sex as something very mechanical and amenable to being fixed with a pill.\" There is already proof that men are feeling \"coerced\" into using drugs like Viagra, and that they feel \"inadequate\" without it, according to a 2001 New Zealand study of couples\' experiences with Viagra, funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Another alarming finding was that Viagra encouraged some men to stray, according one of the authors, Dr Annie Potts, from the department of gender studies at the University of Canterbury. \"Several men in our study were experimenting with partners outside their primary sexual relationship as a direct result of taking Viagra and, as they put it, were experiencing a newfound youthful virility. Wives and partners were not aware of their infidelities ... One man commented that Viagra was the \'catalyst\' for his multiple extramarital affairs.\" Smith fears this \"medicalisation\" of men\'s sexuality will rob men of the opportunity to explore other forms of intimacy, particularly as they age. \"Close physical relationships are based on touch, being held, being caressed and cared for in a physical sense, that doesn\'t necessarily become equated with vaginal intercourse.\" Keany agrees wholeheartedly. Exploring different forms of sexual stimulation and intimacy is an essential skill for long lasting relationships, she says. One of the most common problems she deals with in her practice is the he-wants-more, she-wants-less-sex scenario. It\'s called sexual discrepancy, says Keany, and when it comes to that speed hump in a long-term relationship, our sex lives usually stall and mutual resentment shifts into overdrive. This is where exploring intimacy issues becomes vital for men. When sex takes a back seat to demanding careers, families and the usual clutter of commitments, that is precisely the time that men need to start yapping and women need to start listening — really listening, the therapists say. Brett McCann, the CEO of ASSERT (Australian Society of Sex Educators, Researchers and Therapists) says couples should probe their bad bedroom habits. Habit-forming sex — it helps him sleep, it relieves her boredom — or issues such as wrong timing — he likes to play at night, she prefers a morning frolic — are extremely common, but can be resolved. While the solutions may not be on either partner\'s top five list of best sexual experiences, it is usually better than the frustration of no sex, the withdrawal of intimacy, the betrayal of infidelity and finally, breaking up. \"Some couples do deals,\" says Keany. He may agree to look after the kids for two hours on a Saturday if she will masturbate him a few times a week. \"If they can sit down and work it out, it\'s quite a step forward.\" And when infidelity leads to counselling, how good are the chances of recovery? \"Then it\'s about assessing how much do these couples want this relationship to continue: not for the children, not for society, but for themselves,\" says McCann. \"Their world will never be the same ... It can either become stronger and more honest, but different. One, or both partners, have to decide if there is enough in the relationship to continue.\" However we define modern sexuality in our spin-obsessed, sex-as-commodity society, the girls are definitely some way ahead and men are only beginning the journey. So says Dr Stephen Carroll, a psychotherapist who specialises in the trailing field of men\'s health and whose PhD dealt with the mystery of modern male sexuality. \"Women are transcending that (society\'s definition of female sexuality). Men need to have their own sexual revolution. The group identity for women is very cohesive and able to be spoken about, whereas the group identity for men is stuck in a twisted mythology of what constitutes masculine behaviour. Men have a huge amount of fear about redefining themselves outside that square and how they will be regarded, if they do.\" (Lisa Mitchell, The Age, A3, pages 16-17, 18 September 2003; as reported in Manumit Exchange 18/9/03). Girls flock to private schools Girls attending private same-sex schools are creating an unexpected problem. Many state schools are now forced to run single sex classes for boys to counter massive numerical imbalances between boys and girls. It has become more common in the secondary sector: Mount Eliza College and Kew High School have both had single-sex classes, as has Camberwell High School. Fred Ackerman, president of the Victorian Primary Principals Association said boys and girls undertook certain activities separately, in recognition of the fact that males tend to dominate, particularly in computer technology and education. “There’s an increasing consciousness of boys muscling in and getting more of their share,” he said. One program recently introduced at Haileybury College is “parallel education” in which children learn in co-educational settings up to grade 4, but from grade 5 go into single-sex classes. School principal Robert Pargetter said international research had shown that single-sex classes often outperformed co-educational classes – but co-educational schools gave students essential socialization opportunities. (The Age 6/9/03, page7.) Comment: No wonder boys are at an educational disadvantage. They can’t be themselves, they can’t “dominate”(?) in class. Boys are a `problem’. Single sex classes are good but what I am concerned with here is that natural male behavior is viewed as something out of place. Tasmanian homosexual registrar The last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality has become the first to institute a registry for same-sex couples in significant relationships. The Tasmanian Government’s Relationships Bill passed through the upper house after protracted debate yesterday. The bill also allows same-sex couples access to known-child adoption – where one of the partners is a parent of the child. (Herald Sun 29/803, p25. Modern sport in schools When I went to school, boys played football and girls played Netball. Berwick Secondary College senior girls football and the boys Netball teams have just become the new state champions. The star of the Netball team was Luke Rodda (he is pictured wearing a skirt – yes a skirt. Fair dinkum what next).(The Herald Sun 29/803 page3.) Overseas Britain; Early school age linked to disorders Younger children in a school class are at a greater risk of developing psychiatric disorders and behavioural problems than the class’s older children, a British study has found. Previous studies have linked being among the youngest students in a class with educational disadvantage, but the new study, published in the British Medical Journal yesterday, is the first to link younger students with mental health problems. The findings appear to vindicate thousands of Victorian parents who have increasingly held their children back a year from starting kindergarten or school. .The survey found that children in the youngest third of their classes reported symptoms of psychiatric diagnoses at a rate almost 20 per cent higher than the children in the oldest third of the class. The findings affected younger children and those of secondary school age. (The Age 30/8/03, page News 7). 27/11/2003 - News Items October 2003 Gender Report Items: * Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage * Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern * A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry * Full-time mums \'need government help\' * Male and female brains are different – social philosopher * Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain, By Simon Baron-Cohen. __________________________________________________ Unemployed and low wage men shun marriage More women are having children alone, unable to find men willing to commit to marriage or the cost of setting up a household, a study has found. The proportion of single mothers aged 30 to 34 who fell into this category jumped from 17 per cent of female lone parents in 1986 to 42 per cent in 2001, according to the study, released today. Among younger women aged 25 to 29 who were sole parents, the number was even greater, increasing from 37 per cent to 66 per cent over the same period. The author of the Monash University research, Dr Bob Birrell, said this group of single women heralded a new social phenomenon. It also raised concerns about the financial and emotional hardships for the women and children involved. \"It is not the case that these women are unwilling to get married – they would probably quite like to marry,\" Dr Birrell said. \"But the marriage market they\'re operating in contains men who lack the resources to take on the creation of a new household, men who are unwilling to get married or live in a de facto relationship.\" The growing trend of unpartnered women having children is backed by preliminary findings from another study by the Monash team of all exnuptial births in Victoria in 2001. It found that when unmarried new mothers in hospital were asked if they had a de facto partner, almost half said they did not. Dr Birrell said the rapid increase in the number of mothers who had never married and were not in de facto relationships had become a major concern for society because most depended on welfare payments to survive. \"They have much greater difficulties providing for their children because there is little prospect of financial help from the fathers, who tend to be on low incomes and who pay little or no maintenance,\" he said. The study from Monash\'s Centre for Population and Urban Research, which used census data, will be released at the Australian Family Association\'s national conference in Adelaide today. It follows comments from a senior labour market economist earlier this week who said increasing numbers of prime-aged men had become poor marriage prospects because of labour-market changes. Professor Sue Richardson, of Flinders University, told a conference that 35 per cent of Australian men aged 35 to 44 were unmarried and unemployed, compared with 20 per cent in 1978. Professor Richardson said many of these men were shunning marriage or fatherhood because of poor incomes and job prospects. (Caroline Milburn, The Age (Melbourne), 4 October 2003.) Boys under-performance in education a worldwide concern Women have overtaken men at every level of education in developed countries around the world. And girls are now more confident of getting better-paid, professional jobs than their flagging male counterparts. International education figures, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, show a consistent picture, across cultures and continents, of women achieving better results than men. The OECD survey is a detailed comparison of education achievement and spending in 43 developed countries. The success of girls is a complete reversal of what would have been expected a generation ago, said Andreas Schleicher, head of analysis at the OECD\'s education directorate. And he says that the 1990s have seen a remarkable change in women\'s expectations and achievements. The survey found that in almost every developed country, 15-year-old girls are more confident than boys about getting high-income jobs. For example, in the United Kingdom, 63% of girls expect to have \"white collar, high-skilled\" jobs by the time they are 30, compared to only 51% of boys. This picture of girls with higher expectations than boys is repeated in the United States, Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, France and Australia. University challenge And girls have good reason to be more confident than boys, because academically, around the globe, they are more successful - which is likely to lead to higher-income jobs. In literacy skills, 15-year-old girls are ahead of boys in every one of the 43 countries in the OECD survey. In the UK, the gap in literacy scores between girls and boys at this age is 26%. And this school-age gender gap leads to an increasingly stark difference between the success of male and female students in getting into university. In New Zealand, 89% of women enter university, compared to 62% of men. In Iceland, 80% of women go into higher education, compared to 42% of men. In the United Kingdom, the figures for 2001 show that 49% of women entered university, compared to 41% of men. And Andreas Schleicher says that much of the rapid growth in higher education places and the larger number of students staying in education can be directly attributed to this growing academic success of women. But why should boys be falling behind, in so many different countries? Andreas Schleicher says there are \"troubling signs\" that boys are more susceptible to being put off education by disruptions in their home environment. Boys seem less able to overcome obstacles to education, he says, whether it is peer group pressure or a lack of family support. (BBC News, Tuesday, 16 September, 2003.) A first for Australia: Unanimous support for Fatherhood Inquiry The Family First Party of South Australia has successfully persuaded the parliament of South Australia to launch a Fatherhood Inquiry. The leader of the party, Pastor Andrew Evans MLC, said the fatherhood inquiry had received the support of every member of the Legislative Council. He was commenting after the Upper House had voted on the proposal yesterday and gave it unanimous support. Andrew Evans said in Parliament: “It is refreshing to see that this House has quite rightly recognised this to be an extremely important issue which impacts not just fathers, but has a flow on effect to mothers, the children, families in general (including extended families) and the community as a whole” The committee will consist of two members from the government, two members of the liberal party, a democrat and Mr Evans. “South Australia is the first state to conduct an inquiry of this type and I am confident that it will be a catalyst for change. I encourage any interested person or organisation to make a submission to the committee. All submissions will receive individual consideration”, said Mr Evans. The committee is scheduled to report to parliament on 3 December 2003. Mr Evans said he was delighted yesterday afternoon to have the full support of every member of the Upper House into an inquiry initiated by Family First concerning the crisis currently facing many fathers. He said that separated fathers committed suicide at a rate of 5 to 1 when compared to mothers. In addition there are one million children currently living without their fathers, and it is costing Australian society around $13 billion per year. The result, he said, was visited on children later in life, and they were more likely to run into problems such as involvement in crime, using drugs, and experiencing poverty, as a result. The Inquiry has the following Terms of Reference:- I That a Select Committee of the Legislative Council be appointed to investigate and report upon:- (a) The status of fathers in South Australia by reference to the current level of recognition of their role in family formation and child rearing and in the support given to them by the public and private sectors and the community in general; (b) The current difficulties facing fathers in South Australia from an economic, social and financial perspective in the formation and maintenance of the family unit; (c) The nature and availability of government and non-government support and services for fathers in crisis in SA. II That standing order 389 be suspended as to enable the chairperson of the committee to have a deliberative vote only. III That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it thinks fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council. IV That standing order 396 be suspended as to enable strangers to be admitted when the select committee is examining witnesses unless the committee otherwise resolves, but they shall be excluded when the committee is deliberating. The Committee has a reporting deadline of 3 December 2003, and will be taking submisions and evidence over the coming weeks (South Australia only). The Select Committee consists of the following members:- The Hon. Carmel Zollo MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Gazzola MLC (ALP) The Hon. John Dawkins MLC (LP) The Hon. Michelle Lensink (LP) The Hon. Kate Reynolds MLC (Dem) Comment: This is welcome news indeed! Mr Evans and Family First are to be thoroughly congratulated on this initiative. Let’s hope that other Australian States follow suit, and that the Inquiry enjoys widespread support and success. Full-time mums \'need government help\' The British Government has been urged to help women who wanted to be full-time mothers after new research showed that working mums were disillusioned and stressed out trying to juggle home and work lives. A survey of 2,000 women with young children showed that two out of three would rather be a full time mother than return to work. Those who did work were \"wracked\" with guilt and 92% wished they were at home with their child. Most of the women surveyed by Mother & Baby magazine believed they were missing out on their child\'s early years and many complained of being tired or stressed. One in 10 had none of their salary left after paying for childcare and most still had to do housework or take time off if their child was ill. Research showed that one in three working mothers took an average of 12 days off a year due to stress. Most said they were often too tired for sex and did not have a good social life. Karen Pasquali-Jones, editor of the magazine, said the vast majority of working mothers with young children longed for full-time motherhood. There were Government initiatives to help working mothers, but nothing for women who wanted to stay at home full time with their children, she added. \"The fact is that for many mothers, working is simply not worth their while financially. No wonder many mothers question whether it is worth missing out on their children\'s childhood for a meagre amount.\" (Manumit Exchange, 22/10/03). Male and female brains are different – social philosopher LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It\'s the universal question on many women\'s lips. \"What could he be thinking?\" she shrieks, or sighs or sulks at her husband, boyfriend or son. What is it with men and cars? Why doesn\'t he notice how much housework needs to be done? Why does he need to keep a grip on the remote control? And the most bewildering one of all -- why won\'t he just talk to me? The answers, says social philosopher and author Michael Gurian, lie not in laziness, sexism or sheer pigheadedness but in profound differences between the male and female brain -- and scientists now have the technology to prove it. \"What Could He Be Thinking? How a Man\'s Mind Really Works,\" combines two decades of neurobiological research with anecdotes from everyday life and Gurian\'s experience as a family therapist to present a new vision of the male psyche. It\'s a vision that Gurian hopes will help promote a better understanding of men and reverse what he sees as the dangerous assumption born of the past 40 years of radical femininism that men have simply become redundant. \"As a culture, we\'ve made profound mistakes in the last few decades by assuming that men were unnecessary. Many people have even gone so far as to negate or dismiss what is at the core of a man,\" Gurian writes. Gurian, author of the 1996 groundbreaking book \"The Wonder of Boys\" and its follow-up \"The Wonder of Girls,\" is no anti-feminist. He is married with two daughters, and his book mines the field of brain science to help improve relations between couples. Culture plays a part, but Gurian argues that biology matters much more than previously realised. \"The science has been crucial. Wherever I go, I start by showing PET scans and people can see for themselves the differences between the male and female brain. I think that alters life and marriages,\" Gurian told Reuters. The science part Such are the advances in technology and understanding that PET radioactive-imaging and MRI magnetic-imaging scans can now show whether a man and a woman are truly in love by measuring the amount of activity in the cingulate gyrus, an emotion centre in the brain, Gurian says. Like a guide through a secret forest, his book leads the nonscientist through the complex world of brain science and relates it to some of the most frustrating sources of conflict between men and women in long-term relationships. The male brain secretes less of the powerful primary bonding chemical oxytocin and less of the calming chemical serotonin than the female brain. So while women find emotional conversations a good way to chill out at the end of the day, the tired male brain needs to zone out all that touchy-feely chatter in order to relax -- which is why he wants the remote control to zap through \"mindless\" sport or action movies. His brain takes in less sensory detail than a woman\'s, so he doesn\'t see or even feel the dust and household mess in the same way. Anyhow, the male brain attaches less personal identity to the inside of a home and more to the workplace or the yard -- which is why he doesn\'t get worked up about housework. Male hormones such as testosterone and vasopressin set the male brain up to seek competitive, hierarchical groups in its constant quest to prove self-worth and identity. That is why men, paradoxically (from a hormonally altered new mother\'s point of view), become even more workaholic once they have kids, to whom they must also prove their worth. Back to nature Gurian says his book is aimed mainly at women. \"Men get this already. They are living this brain but they don\'t have the conscious language to explain it. Women are not living it. \"If they are relating to a man, I hope they will be touched, informed and entertained and will have a new vision of the way they can make their relationship work. \"I beg people to go back to nature, look at the PET scans, look at the brain differences and see if it makes sense.\" If it does, the consequences are profound for a generation of \"liberated\" women brought up to believe it is men who have to change, and men who must respond to a female way of relating in order for marriage to succeed. Gurian says men can learn new skills and alter their behaviour but they will not be able to meet all of women\'s expectations. \"Popular culture focuses so much on trying to get people closer. Most people believe that marriages break up because men and women are not close enough. But what I am learning about the brain leads to the idea of intimate separateness, in which the brain seeks less intimacy at times,\" Gurian said. \"People want to love each other. If we can learn who we might be - not what IS he thinking, but what COULD he be thinking - then I am optimistic.\" (Jill Serjeant, Wednesday, Oct 1, 8:07 AM ET, Yahoo News 3/10/03.) Book review: The Essential Difference The Truth About the Male and Female Brain By Simon Baron-Cohen Basic Books. 271 pp. $26 Reviewed by Carolyn See, The Washington Post, 5 October 2003,Page BW03 We \"know\" men and women are different; we know it in our collective consciousness, our collective gut. It\'s the stuff of \"Mars and Venus\" and myriad advice columns in the newspapers and weeping wives on \"Oprah\" flanked by stone-faced, shifty-eyed husbands. Women like the ballet, men like cars. Women chat on the phone, men zone out on TV sports. Ninety percent of the murders in America are said to be committed by men. (I suppose women do 90 percent of the retail shopping.) For 20 years, Simon Baron-Cohen has been doing research on gender differences (and autism) but hesitated, he writes in this fascinating book, to mention his theories in public until 1997, because it would have been so impolitic in our climate of gender political correctness. His hypothesis, stated on page one of The Essential Difference, is that male and female brains are different -- not better or worse than each other, just different: \"The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.\" Yet toward the end of this study, the author writes that he \"would weep with disappointment if a reader took home from this book the message that \'all men have lower empathy\' or \'all women have lower systemizing skills.\' \" The operative word here, I think, is \"weep.\" Baron-Cohen\'s concern, after proving the validity of his hypothesis, seems to be for mutual respect between the sexes. He has come up with a fascinating crazy-quilt of studies to prove our sexual differences. From the very first day of life, for instance, given two different images to stare at in the crib - one a smiling woman, the other that same face snipped up and made into an abstract mobile - female babies focus on the face, male babies on the mobile. Baron-Cohen\'s point is that these differences are not culturally based - although they may be reinforced by the culture. They are biological, he says, perhaps genetic in origin. They are, in fact, \"hard-wired\" in us all. This may not be the best news for feminists, who have worked so hard and so long for \"equality.\" The phrase \"separate but equal\" certainly has an odious history. But what if, in fact, men and women really are equal but separate, separate but equal? Put more personally, what if my ex-husband, who never met my eye and conversed mainly in monologues or tirades (but he was darling!) wasn\'t trying to drive me crazy? What if he was just wired that way? What if Prince Charles wasn\'t just being a mannerless churl when, on being asked whether he loved Princess Di, answered with a question about the existence of love? What if men are indeed \"wired that way\"? Reading this bracing study is a lot like drowning; i.e., your whole life passes in front of your eyes. Scene after scene floats up from one\'s twenties, one\'s thirties. Suddenly, after years, the scenes make sense. \"A woman is a gadget you screw in the bed and it does all the housework,\" a guy told me once, kidding on the square. But what if that made sense to him? What if he saw the world in terms of systems instead of humans? What if he was wired that way? Baron-Cohen also hypothesizes an \"extreme male brain,\" which we tend to perceive as autistic. (Four out of five autistics are male; in our new epidemic of autism, as many as one in 87 boys is born with the syndrome.) The autistic child has trouble meeting the gaze of others, is disinclined to talk and often socially clueless. His strong suits are a love of recurring patterns and an extraordinary ability to concentrate. The author suggests that Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein - both socially inept but able to discover previously unknown systems - were autistic, possessing \"extreme male\" brains. (Andy Warhol has been said to have Asperger\'s, a disorder sometimes linked to autism - Andy Warhol, my ex-husband\'s cousin. And this book interested me in the first place because I have an autistic grandson.) I thank Simon Baron-Cohen more than I can say for having written this book. It has explained a good part of my own life to me; it\'s made men achingly human to me. But I have to respectfully question half of his hypothesis, the part about the female brain being hard-wired for empathy. Or at least I wish he\'d reworded it, as in \"women are more curious about humans; men are more curious about systems.\" The word \"empathy\" suggests that after you\'ve put yourself in someone else\'s place you feel the need to help him or her, even, at times, to put his or her needs before your own. This is an idea that goes back at least to the time of Adam. It\'s an idea, a wish, I feel certain, that springs directly from the \"male\" brain. I don\'t have studies to draw on. I base my conclusions on my own thoughts, conversations with female friends, and most important, the avalanche of novels - both \"light\" and \"literary\" - written by women since the \'20s, when Julia Peterkin beat out Hemingway for the Pulitzer Prize. Women tend to be devoted to their children, but they\'re not necessarily interested in \"helping\" men through their lives, in serving them or sacrificing for them or even sympathizing with them. (Often, though I hate to say it, and it tends to be invisible to men, women think about themselves.) What a wonderful thing it would have been if the author had worked with a female collaborator who could have shone as bright a light on women as he has on men. 27/11/2003 - News Items November 2003 Gender Report Part-time work creating a class of `excluded and dangerous’ men Bureau of Statistics figures released in October reveal three-quarters of the 424,000 jobs created in Australia since August 2000 have been part-time, with only 106,00 new full-time jobs created in three years with women gaining 14,300 new full-time jobs. The data shows the top half of the workforce enjoying permanent, well paid, full-time jobs, while the bottom half can find only casual, poorly-paid, part-time work which, as Labour market economist Professor Sue Richardson warned was creating a class of “excluded and dangerous,” men with incomes too low to support a family. Since the 1990 recession, almost two-thirds of all jobs created in Australia- more than one million out of 1.6 million have been part-time. In 13 years full-time jobs have grown just 9% whereas the number of part-time jobs has shot up by a staggering 62%. ABS figures show the dominance of part-time jobs since 2000 is not the workers’ choice. Of the 199,000 net growth in women working part-time, 107,000 wanted to work more hours –usually full-time – and 65,000 were actively looking for more work. (The Age, 4/10/03, page 6 news.) Supermum on way out? According to Australian researchers Nancy Brown and Justine Clements, women are abandoning being a `supermum’ and are wanting to return to a more traditional lifestyle. “Women are seeking to bring balance back into their lives to combat the severe time pressures of previous decades,” Brown said. “They are learning to say no to taking on all roles and are starting to realise that finding time and space for themselves is vital for emotional well-being.” (MX 13/10/03, page 1). Feminist gets top job Labor backbencher Carmen Lawrence, has been appointed federal president of the Australian Labor Party. She created history by becoming the first female president after a ballot of 20,000 members. (The Herald Sun 14/11/03, page 29.) Testosterone – the new wonder drug? It has been called the elixir of youth and its highly fashionable on both sides of the Atlantic. Men are injecting it, rubbing in on, or having time slow release pads inserted under their skin. Testosterone products are in huge demand. Dr Tedde Rinker, anti-aging specialist, says that as a man gets older his testosterone levels decline, especially after middle age. As a consequence, men experience a declining libido, loss of energy and a feeling of losing control and power. Many men over 50 now take testosterone to improve their quality of life. They report that taking the testosterone has made them feel like they did when they were in their early 30’s, and have recovered their libido in full. Dr Thierry Herthoghe 45, an anti-aging specialist, has taken the hormone for over 15 years. Pierre Bouloux, endocrinologist, said that taking the hormone increases the risk of prostate cancer. Tests conducted in Amsterdam show that taking testosterone increases interest in sex in both men and women, is a proven aphrodisiac and helps raise a person’s confidence and power. (Catalyst, 9/10/03, Channel 2, 8pm.) Overseas England: Spiderman protest LONDON: A father dressed as his daughter\'s hero Spiderman has turned villain for thousands of London\'s motorists after barricading himself in a crane overlooking Tower Bridge. Police have closed one of the capital\'s main road arteries to seal off the area around the crane, home to a 36-year old man\'s protest over the enforcement of fathers\' rights to see their children. David Chick\'s stunt has inspired sympathy from some Londoners but many are calling for an end to his protest, which entered its fifth day on Tuesday. \"The man is acting like an absolute prat. Londoners are turning against him,\" said Richard Barnes, deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority. Chick emerged from the crane\'s cab on Tuesday to punch the air and stroll along the crane\'s arm. Barnes said London business had lost UKP50 million from the disruption and it was costing UKP10,000 per day for the 34 police and traffic wardens manning the cordons. (Do you sympathise with this father\'s plight?) Fathers 4 Justice (F4J), a group pressing fathers to have improved access to their children, have been in contact with Chick via a walkie-talkie and said on Tuesday that Chick was very annoyed that the police had closed off the roads. Police said that it was too dangerous to remove Chick forcibly but they intend to arrest him. Chick, who F4J say has not been able to see his two-year-old daughter for over eight months, scaled the crane early on Friday and has resisted attempts to talk him down. F4J members said they were negotiating with police to get more batteries to Chick so he could use his mobile phone and walkie-talkie again. Chick had taken indoor fireworks up with him and had enough food for at least another week, they added. One disgruntled commuter said: \"He\'s never going to get to see his daughter now.\" (Manumit Exchange Newsletter, 6 November 2003.) Friday, 7th November. Chick came down from the crane and surrendered to police who promptly arrested him. He was later released on bail after being charged with being a `public nuisance’ and `actions causing danger to the public’. Chick has asked that he be heard by judge and jury at a Crown court. It is expected that his case will be heard in six weeks (Crown Court hearing). England: Domestic violence – it’s also a women’s problem According to a recent article published in Male View, domestic violence in England is committed almost in equal proportions by both sexes. 4.2% of both women and men said they had been physically assaulted by a current or former partner in the last year. 5.9% of women and 4.9% of men had experienced physical assault and/or frightening threats. 23% of women and 15% of men aged 16 to 59 said they had been physically assaulted by a current or former partner at some time. The assaults included pushing, shoving and grabbing but also included kicking, slapping and hitting with fists which took place in nearly half the incidents. The victim was injured in 41% of the incidents with women being injured 47% to men being injured 31%. There are some 400 refuges for women in England but none for men. (The data was taken from the British Crime Survey 1996). (Male View, Oct/Nov 2003, #44, pages 15-17.) Greece: Male only sanctuary outlawed For a thousand years, the Greek Orthodox monks of the island of Mount Athos have been praying in quiet and seclusion unmolested by the outside world. But a proposal threatens to disrupt this tradition. A plenary session of the European Parliament has passed a proposal/report demanding that the Greek Government rescind the special protection the monks have enjoyed for a millennium. Over this period, no women have been allowed to visit the island. Now the anti-discrimination obsessed European Parliament wants to impose its will on the monks and force them to allow women on the island. (AD 2000, November 2003, pages 4-5.) USA: Do daughters cause divorce? A United States study has shown that parents of girls are 5 per cent more likely to divorce than parents of boys. Not only that, the more daughters you have the more chance there is of divorcing. The study found: * A couple with one daughter is 5 per cent more likely to divorce than a couple with one son. * The more daughters, the greater the effect: a couple with three daughters is 13% more likely to divorce than a couple with three sons. * Couples with all boys have the lowest divorce rate of the family type. * Couples with all girls have the highest divorce rate of any family. * The arrival of a boy offers some protection from divorce, since mixed gender families divorce less often than families with only girls. * A couple with two daughters is more likely to have a third child than a couple with two sons. * Single mothers who give birth to a boy are 42% more likely to marry the father than those with girls. The Study was conducted by Gordon Dahl, associate professor of economics at Rochester in New York, and Enrico Moretti from the University of California. Their study was based on data from 6 million mothers, which was extracted from the past 60 years of US census. (The Age, A3, 13/11/03, pages 10-11.) 02/09/2002 - Health Prostate on the agenda at last! Prostate cancer At last prostate cancer is beginning to receive the attention it should in the community. For years prostate cancer has been the poor cousin to breast cancer but thankfully it has begun to dawn on the medical fraternity that yes Virginia, men do suffer because of simply being male. Over the past decade the death rate from prostate cancer has fallen by 21%. It was also notable that the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test was introduced to Australia during the decade ending 2000. The median age for diagnosis of the disease is 71 years. Before the PSA test came into use, the cancer's incidence was steady from year to year. That changed with increasing use of PSA testing. The number of prostate cancer cases diagnosed rose from 143.3 per 100,000 in 1990 to a peak of 195.6 per 100,000 in 1992 and then fell to 155.5 per 100,000 in 1998, the most recent year for which data are available. As for the mortality rates, they were falling steadily and dropped by 16% from 1990 to 1998, going from 38.6% per 100,000 to 32.3 per 100,000. Data also shows that the operation for radical prostatectomy (the complete removal of the prostate) was usually performed while patients were in their early 60's. This operation is very complex and there can be after affects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Oral agents such as Viagra are generally ineffective in men who have had non-nerve sparing radical prostatectomy surgery. The vacuum constriction device is an external mechanical pump, which some couples find inadequately restores their ability to have sexual intercourse. The insertion of an inflatable penile prosthesis is for many men the best long-term solution to the chronic problem of erectile dysfunction. Sexual rehabilitation is critical for the man and his wife who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Counselling should commence prior to treatment says Dr Phillip Katelaris from the Sydney Adventist Hospital. (Prostate News, Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia, Issue 11, Winter 2002, pages 1,2,4.) 02/09/2002 - Gender Men's rights need political protection New laws needed to protect men Increasingly men's groups in Australia and overseas are calling for laws to protect men from a new predator, the women who target them exclusively for their sperm. Around the world, the battle of the sexes is taking a new turn. American millionaire Steve Bing acknowledges he's the father of English model and actress Elizabeth Hurley's son only after DNA tests. In Sweden, a court orders Igor Lehnberg to pay child support to the lesbian couple who used his donated sperm to have three children. Tennis star Boris Becker accuses a Russian model of stealing his sperm during an encounter in a broom cupboard. Mick Jagger is ordered to pay child support after tests prove he is the dad of model Luciana Morad's son. And in the US, there's the world's first "paternity fraud" lawsuit: Peter Wallis accuses his long-term partner, Kellie Smith, of "intentionally acquiring and misusing" his sperm after she became pregnant when she was supposed to be on the pill. Of the roughly 2,000 children born by donor insemination every year in Australia about one in ten is told about their biological father, There is no national legislation on reproductive technology, so many records are incomplete, or missing. Donors have always been encouraged by clinics to remain anonymous. Paul Cartwight, 23, a result of donor insemination, had a bar-code tattooed on his neck with the slogan "product of technology", because "I was created by technology". He says, "I felt like I was something that could be bought or sold. I had a real struggle with it in my teens." Then there are the donor insemination horror stories. Doctors who used their own semen for multiple donations without keeping records, mixed semen samples, and the unknown amount of sperm being imported via the internet from the UK, Sweden and the US. This raises the interesting question, if you can buy sperm on web sites you are called a `consumer', thus the sperm is a commodity. But what does this make the new life created? A by