The era of male economic supremacy is over, says Hanna Rosin, an editor at The Atlantic, in her new book, The End of Men: And the Rise of Women. Although executives running Fortune 500 Companies are still overwhelmingly male, women in their twenties now outearn men in their twenties. Are men becoming irrelevant? Consider this incident I witnessed in our hunting field just last Saturday.

One of our hunt members (call her Christy) loaded her horse onto the trailer at the conclusion of our Saturday meet and proceeded to drive out of the field. Unfortunately, she chose a low, wet spot to traverse, and just before reaching the firm driveway her progress ended. The right rear wheel of her truck buried itself to the axle in mud. The right front wasn’t a whole lot better.

Another hunt member (call her Cathy) already on the driveway and heading home, swung her truck and trailer back onto the firm grass and stopped. After a brief tactical conversation, Cathy unloaded Christy’s horse from the stuck trailer and loaded it onto hers. Meanwhile Christy tidied her trailer and closed it up. Those of us still left at the meet—including a few men, me included—watched from a distance as one or two more women gathered to help. I mumbled something like, “She’s gonna need a tractor and chain.”

Without pause, Cathy unhitched her now full trailer and drove her truck up the driveway, stopping almost nose-to-nose with the stuck vehicle. She produced a nylon tow strap, and with the help of Christy and the other women, secured it to both vehicles.

Cathy slowly backed up on the driveway, and the slack came off the nylon strap.  Two engines roared, the stuck truck lurched, balked, swayed, and seconds later climbed the embankment and sat proudly on the driveway with its trailer.

As the ladies whooped, one female voice rose exultantly above the cheers.

“Woman Power!”

****

Epilogue: The tractor sent by the landowner stopped, turned around, and retreated unneeded.

Posted October 7, 2012