You're probably aware of the basic trends. The financial rewards to education have increased over the past few decades, but men fail to benefit. In elementary and high school, male academic performance is lagging. Boys earn three-quarters of the D's and F's. By college, men are clearly behind. Only 40 percent of bachelor's degree go to men, along with 40 percent of master's degree. Thanks to their lower skills, men are dropping out of the labor force. In 1954, 96 percent of the American men between the ages of 25 and 54 worked. Today, that number is down to 80 percent. In Friday's jobs report, male labor force participation reached an all-time low. Millions of men are collecting disability benefits. Even many of those who do have a job are doing poorly. According to Michael Greenstone of the Hamilton Project, annual earnings for average prime-age males have dropped by 28 percent over the past 40 years. Men still dominate   the top of the corporate ladder because many women take time off to raise children, but women lead or are gaining nearly everywhere else. Women in their 20s outearn men in their 20s. Twelve out of the 15 fastest-growing professions are dominated by women. Over the years, many of us have employed a certain theory to explain men's economic decline. It is that the information-age economy rewards qualities that women are more likely to possess. To succeed today, you have to be able to sit still and focus attention in school at an early age. You have to be emotionally sensitive and aware of context. You have to communicate smoothly. For genetic and cultural reasons, many men are not good at these. But, in her fascinating new book, The End of Men, Hanna Rosin suggests a different theory. It has to do with adaptability. Women, Rosin argues, are like immigrants   who have moved to a new country. They see a new social context, and they flexibly adapt to .new circumstances. Men are like immigrants who have physically moved to a new country but who have kept their minds in the old one. They speak the old language. They follow the old customs. Men are more likely to be rigid; women are more fluid. This theory has less to do with born qualities and more to do with social position. When there's big social change, the people who were on the top of the old order are bound to stick to the old ways. The people who were on the bottom are bound to experience a burst of energy. They are going to explore their new surroundings more enthusiastically. Rosin reports from working-class Alabama. The women she meets are flooding into new jobs and new opportunities -- going back to college, pursuing new careers. The men are waiting around for the jobs left and are never coming back. They are strangely immune  to new options. In the Auburn-Opelika region, the average female income is 140 percent of the average male income. Rosin is not saying that women are winners in a global gender   war or that they are doing super simply because men are doing worse. She's just saying women are adapting to today's economy more flexibly than men. There's a lot of evidence to support her case. A study by the National Federation of Independent Business found that small businesses owned by women outperformed male-owned small business during the last recession  . In finance, women who switch firms are more likely to see their performance improve, whereas men are likely to see theirs decline. There's even evidence that women are better able to adjust to divorce. Today, more women than men see their incomes rise by 25 percent after a marital breakup. Forty years ago, men and women stuck to certain theory, what it meant to be a man or a woman. Young women today, Rosin argues, have abandoned both feminist  and prefeminist preconceptions. Men still stick to the masculinity  rules, which limit their vision and their movement. If she's right, then men will have to acknowledge that they are strangers in a strange land. What is the passage intended to convey?
The differences between men and women. The reasons why men do no better than women. The social status of men and women. The reasons why men fail compared with women.