Is this the end of men or something new?

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday October 9, 2014

It's "The End of Men" says the best-selling book by Hanna Rosin. She has set an intense debate in motion around the world. Have the girls finally won?

Well they are certainly making huge leaps forward, and if your business and marketing planning isn't taking this into account, you could be in for a rude shock.

Here in Australia, the NAB Bank recently reported that 40 per cent of women recorded themselves as the main breadwinner in the household. Just seven years ago it was only 29 per cent. These are women who are married or in de facto relationships. Mind you, men saw things differently - in the same survey, 85 per cent of men saw themselves as the main breadwinner.

There are now the same number of men and women earning university bachelor degrees. Men do not become a majority till you reach PhD level.

Research by advertising agency JWT, of men in America and Britain, found that 70per cent agreed that men are becoming less dominant in society. They believe it has become harder to be a man today. It's harder to succeed as a father and husband than it was 30 years ago.

They've become more brittle about those "dumb dad" commercials which show what a dork he is. Kimberley Clark found that out in America when they ran a novel on-line competition. Five dads were left alone in a house with their babies, while the mums went off for five days' leave. "We've given Huggies the toughest test imaginable - dads!" says the narrator.

Then, Big Brother style, the dads are shown coping with baby minding, including changing the nappies. At the end they had a winner - and a backlash. Hundreds of dads from around the country signed a protest, attacking Huggies for alleging dads' incompetence. It took KC grovelling apologies and truckloads of free nappies to soothe the customer anger.

The survey also revealed 78per cent of men feel there's as much pressure to stay in shape and have a good body as there is on women. 73per cent said there's pressure to dress well and be well-groomed, as on women.

The marketer can't afford to ignore the male. Roy Morgan Research measures grocery buyers: they state that in 1997, 31per cent of main grocery buyers were male, 69per cent female. Today the figures are 38per cent men, 62per cent women. Believe me, that's a significant change.

Men's and women's roles are changing. The economy is changing. All those lost jobs in car manufacturing, engineering, factories, were mainly men's. The more computer-oriented industries favour women. It's getting harder for a man to find a job. Although a man earns some 20per cent more than a woman across the broad average, the advantage has been falling.

My recent column on "How do you run like a girl" raised a lot of comments and forwarding, winning praise for Always sanitary napkins. Just last week Beyonce declared herself a feminist on the MTV awards and no doubt won a few million girls to her cause.

Maybe now we have to look at the blokes in the background - are they being left behind? The Marlboro cowboy long since died of cancer, the Toyota Camry's "bad Dad" is as fiercely masculine as a chihuahua, and our new generation of "Millennial males" (18-34) are happy with moisturisers, waxing and facials - or at least a third to a half of them are, according to JWT.

But let's be confident. It's not "the end of men", it's a new man - but he needs to understand where he fits, and where he is going.