Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Women in America or arguments for a council on men and boys

This is about the following report:

WOMEN IN AMERICA Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being - March 2011 - Prepared by U. S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration
and Executive Office of the President Office of Management and Budget

This report is kind of big thing not only because of the sheer size but also:

In cooperation with Bureau of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics for White House Council on Women and Girls

White House Council on Women and Girl. Like my title states this is going to be an argument that a council for men and boys is also needed. (I am not saying there are no issues facing girls and women, there are many)

So I read through that report and copied the headlines (and sometimes further explanations as the headline in this context here can sometimes be misleading) for points a council for men and boys might also be interested in. Here we go:

While the populations of both men and women are aging, women continue to outnumber men at older ages.

Most adults live in households headed by married couples; single mother households are more common than single-father households. [Father's rights / divorce]

Women’s gains in educational attainment have significantly outpaced those of men over the last 40 years.

Female students score higher than males on reading assessments and lower than males on mathematics assessments. [...] The percentage of both boys and girls proficient
in math has increased significantly since 1990, although girls are still slightly less likely than boys to be proficient in math.

Higher percentages of women than men age 25–34 have earned a college degree.

More women than men have received a graduate education.

Higher percentages of women than men participate in adult education.

Unemployment rates for women have risen less than for men in recent recessions.

The above are fairly obvious, the next is a bit tricky.

In families where both husband and wife are employed, employed wives spend more time in household activities than do employed husbands. [...] On an average workday in 2009, employed married women spent 1.6 hours in household activities and an additional hour caring for household members. In contrast, employed married men spent nearly one hour in household activities and about 40 minutes caring for household members. [...] Employed married men spent more time in labor market work and related activities (including commuting) on an average workday in 2009 than did employed married women 8.8 hours and 7.6 hours, respectively.

Some math:
Employed wives: 1.6 + 1 + 7.6 = 10.2
Employed husbands: 1 + 0.67 + 8.8 = 10.47

It is the usual stuff, the headline makes it look like husbands do less than wives yet when you add up the numbers, there is almost equality. They also add the men have more leisure time statistic, but when you look at the graph, as women sleep more and do more other activities it seems to even out.

Women have longer life expectancy than men, but the gap is decreasing. [as if that is a bad thing]

More women than men report having a chronic medical condition. [...] Women report a higher prevalence of asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, cancer, and arthritis. Men report a higher prevalence of heart disease and diabetes.

Females age 12 and older are more likely than males to report experiencing depression. [...] At all ages, females experience higher rates of depression than males. In any two-week period, 8 percent of women and girls report experiencing clinically significant depression, compared to 5 percent for men and boys. [Gap is not that big and I assume depression is underreported in men]

More than one-third of all women age 20 and older are obese. The proportions of women and men age 20 and older who are obese are similar.

The share of women age 18–64 without health insurance has increased. [...] Less than half of all women meet the Federal physical activity guidelines for aerobic activity. [...] Overall, 43 percent of women age 25 and older met the Federal aerobic physical activity guidelines in 2009, compared to 51 percent of
men. [Gap is not that big]

Many women do not receive specific recommended preventive care. [...] Only 53 percent of women age 50 and older have ever received a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy. Men are somewhat more likely to report ever having these treatments (56 percent) than women in this age group. [...] Women age 50 and older are somewhat more
likely than men to have obtained an influenza immunization in the last year (53 percent compared to 49 percent) but the shares of women and men age 65 and older having ever received a pneumococcal immunization were similar. [...] Women age 18 and older are more likely to have had their blood cholesterol checked in the last 5 years than men (78 percent and 73 percent, respectively).

The share of women age 18–64 without health insurance has increased. [...] In 2009, 18 percent of nonelderly women (age 18–64) lacked health insurance, compared to 13 percent in 1984. For men, the percentage of uninsured rose from 16 percent to 24 percent.

One out of seven women age 18–64 has no usual source of health care. [...] Approximately 15 percent of women and 26 percent of men age 18–64 have no usual
source of health care.

Nonfatal violent crimes against women declined between 1993 and 2008. [...] The nonfatal violent victimization rate for women fell from 43 per 1,000 women in 1993
to 18 per 1,000 in 2008. During the same period, the rate of nonfatal violent victimization of men declined from 64 to 22 per 1,000 men.

Homicides of females declined between 1993 and 2008. [...] In 2008, 3,541 females and 12,731 males were victims of homicide.

The imprisonment rate for females has increased significantly. [...] The imprisonment rate for females quadrupled between 1985 and 2008, from 0.17 per 1,000
females to 0.68 per 1,000 females. The 2008 rate was much greater for males (9.52 per 1,000 men) than for females.

There are a whole lot of issues men and boys face. It is time to take a closer look at them.

2 comments:

  1. One of those issue would be the fact that contrary to common belief the majority of juvenile children who sells sex are boys. And also that boys seem (at least in some countries) to have a younger debut age for selling sex than girls. Se my recent comment at FC for some references: http://www.feministcritics.org/blog/2012/05/25/prostitutes-are-not-42-times-more-likely-to-be-murdered-than-the-typical-american-noh/#comment-241887

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  2. Wow, pretty good data actually, I will have to borrow a bit for a new posting. To add to this topic, this is what I have found in the past:

    Feitel (1992) - New York - 150 shelter using youth age 13-22:
    21 percent of the boys and 5 percent of the girls said that they had engaged in sex in exchange for ‘food, shelter, money, or drugs.

    Rotheram‐Borus (1992) - New York - 206 homeless youth age 11-18:
    13 percent of males exchanged sex for money or drugs and 7 percent of females exchanged sex for money or drugs.

    Kipke (1995/97) - Los Angeles - 409 street youth age 12-23:
    43 percent reported experience with survival sex (46 percent of young men and 32 percent of young women).

    Wagner (2001) - Seattle - 289 homeless youth age 13-22:
    47 percent of females and 37 percent of males were propositioned to sell sex. ( http://feck-blog.blogspot.de/2010/05/homeless-youth-and-sexual-exploitation.html )

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