????在耶魯大學商學院（Yale Business School）舉辦的一個宴會上，薩布麗娜一邊品嘗著手中的雞尾美酒，一邊聊著她喜歡（紅酒、Lady Gaga和安格拉?默克爾）和反感的事物（矮個子男人、金融白癡，以及遭人蔑視的高管撰寫的不夠成熟的文本）。這位綠眼睛美女可以被很容易地歸入《欲望都市》女主角凱莉?布雷蕭那種類型：單身、鎮靜自若、事業有成且魅力四射。她是“獨一無二的”，一位舊情人這樣形容她。

????31歲的薩布麗娜在不同的銀行工作了數年；她談過幾場戀愛，并沒有真正感受過成家的緊迫感：“我為什么要找個男人？我又不靠他養我，也不需要他干活。我有很多朋友。去他娘的。”

????千里之外，失業的卡爾文正在竭力尋找自己在后制造業時代的坐標。他的前妻，29歲的貝辛妮經營著自己的日托生意，似乎并不依賴他做什么事情。兩人有一個女兒，但卡爾文并不是這個家庭的重要一份子。貝辛妮若有所思地說，外出購物時帶著他不過意味著“我倆少吃一個格蘭諾拉燕麥卷而已。”卡爾文似乎僅僅是一個只會在花錢方面增添麻煩的人，貝辛妮選擇讓他離開自己的生活。

????以上就是漢娜?羅森的著作《男性的終結與女性的崛起》（The End of Men: And the Rise of Women）一書的開篇。這本書探索的主題是現代職業女性及其對經濟、性別規范和男性自尊的影響。2010年，羅森曾在《大西洋月刊》（The Atlantic）上發表過一篇同名文章，希望回答她自己提出的一個問題：如果后工業時期的現代社會更適合女性，世界將會怎樣？

????她的研究發現，“經濟和文化已經發生了某種地震級的轉換，不僅是對男性，對女性也是如此。男女雙方必須進行調整，以適應一種完全新型的工作、生活，甚至戀愛方式。”在這本書中，她竭力詮釋了我們怎么一步步走到了目前的境地，以及對于我們所知的生活，這究竟意味著什么等問題。羅森均等地使用軼事和社會學分析（附加以少量統計數據）等手段，得出了一個男性或許很難接受的推論。盡管這本書的書名暗示這是一個“女孩當道，男孩艷羨”的故事，但實際情況并非如此。這本書涉及的主題非常廣泛，所有主題均與性別、金錢和愛有關。羅森的座右銘是什么？“沒有所謂的‘自然’秩序，唯有事物的本原模樣。”

????書中最有趣的故事發生在運動裝備制造商拉塞爾公司（Russell Corporation）昔日的大本營：阿拉巴馬州亞歷山大市。作為重組的一部分，這家公司將工廠遷至美國境外。2006年，伯克希爾哈撒韋公司（Berkshire Hathaway）收購了該公司。數千名居住在亞歷山大市的拉塞爾公司員工（其中絕大多數是男性）突然失去了工作。

????美國各地的工業城鎮都在經歷類似的創傷，羅森寫道。就在男性為逝去的黃金歲月滿懷感傷之際，女性們卻將懷舊情緒擱置一旁，擔當起養家糊口的角色。“男人逐漸熄火的時候，婦女不得不自食其力，肩負起撫養小孩的責任，”麻省理工學院（MIT）的經濟學家大衛?奧特爾說道。“她們不愿嫁人，因為所謂的丈夫僅僅是另一張需要喂養的嘴而已。”

????我們此前目睹過這樣的場景。羅森提醒我們，從上世紀70年代開始，非洲裔美國男性開始離開制造業。到了1987年，僅有20%的黑人男性在工廠工作。她寫道：“隨著時間的推移，小家庭開始分崩離析，吸毒率上升，社會機構開始瓦解。”這時，婦女們站了出來。在過去20年中，黑人社區已經迎來了女家長制社會。羅森指出，父親身陷囹圄的非洲裔美國男孩的畢業成績往往優于那些父親陪伴在身邊的孩子，這種狀況顯示，“父親已經成為孩子成長過程中的負面影響因素。”

????With a cocktail in hand at a Yale Business School party, Sabrina chats about her likes (red wine, Lady Gaga, and Angela Merkel) and her dislikes (short men, FDBs -- financial douche bags -- and immature texts from scorned exes). The green-eyed beauty could easily roll with Carrie Bradshaw's posse. She's single, poised, successful, and attractive -- "one of a kind" is how an old flame describes her.

????Sabrina, 31, spent years working at various banks; she's been in and out of love and feels no real urgency to settle down: "What do I need a man for? I don't need him financially. I don't need him to do activities. I have lots of friends here. So fuck it."

????A thousand miles away, unemployed Calvin attempts to navigate the post-manufacturing age. His ex, Bethenny, 29, runs her own daycare business and doesn't seem to rely on him for anything. The two have a daughter together, though Calvin isn't an important part of the equation. While grocery shopping, Bethenny muses that having him around would just mean "one less granola bar for the both of us." It seems Calvin is nothing more than a financial hassle -- one that Bethenny chooses to keep out of her life.

????And so begins Hanna Rosin's The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, an exploration of the modern career woman and her effect on the economy, gender norms, and masculine self-worth. In 2010, Rosin published an essay of the same name in The Atlantic, hoping to answer her own question: What if modern, postindustrial society is simply better suited to women?

????Her research uncovered that something "seismic had shifted the economy and culture, not only for men but for women, and that both sexes were going to have to adjust to an entirely new way of working and living and even falling in love." In her book, she works to explain how we got to where we are -- and what it may mean for life as we know it. Equal parts anecdote and sociological analysis (with a dash of statistics), Rosin serves a dish that may be hard for American men to digest. Though the title suggests it's a "girls rule, boys drool" tale, that's untrue. Rosin covers a wide range of subjects, all relating to gender, money, and love. Her motto? "There is no 'natural' order, only the way things are."

????Rosin's most interesting reporting occurs in Alexander City, Alabama, the former home of athletic gear manufacturer Russell Corporation. As part of a restructuring, it moved its plants outside of the United States and in 2006, Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA)acquired the company. Thousands of Russell employees living in Alexander City (the majority of them men) were suddenly jobless.

????Industrial towns across America are experiencing similar trauma, Rosin writes. As the men pine for the golden days, the women push nostalgia aside and take on the provider role. "When men start to flame out, women by necessity have to become self-sufficient, to take care of the kids," says MIT economist David Autor. "They don't marry the men, who are just another mouth to feed."

????We've seen this movie before. Starting in the 1970s, Rosin reminds us, African-American men began leaving the manufacturing sector. By 1987, only 20% of black men worked in factories. "Over time, nuclear families fell apart, drug addiction shot up, and social institutions began to disintegrate," she writes. Women stepped up, and over the past 20 years, the black community has embraced matriarchy. (Rosin notes that African-American boys whose fathers are in jail graduate at higher rates than those whose dads are around, suggesting that "fathers have become a negative influence.")