Since the beginning of time, men have ruled the world.
But now women are speeding past men in schools, at home and in the workplace, according to Hanna Rosin's new book The End of Men: And the Rise of Women.
In the past, "men had an advantage because of their size and strength," Rosin told us in an interview. But in the industrialized world, brains are valued over brawn.
Her book outlines the evidence that women are poised to take over the world.
"Women worldwide dominate colleges and professional schools on every continent except Africa," Rosin says. In the United States, three women receive a Bachelor's Degree for every two men that do.
The shift is also revealed in the workplace, where 12 of the 15 fastest-growing industries are primarily occupied by women. Rosin writes in the book:
Our vast and struggling middle class, where the disparities between men and women are the greatest, is slowly turning into a matriarchy, with men increasingly absent from the workforce and from home, and women making all the decisions. The story was no longer about the depths men had sunk to, that dynamic had been played out for several decades. The new story was that women, for the first time in history, had in many ways surpassed them.
Men have also been limited by society's depictions of them, and are struggling to conform to a more domestic role, Rosin said. While female role models on television date back to workplace woman Mary Tyler Moore, men are often portrayed as bumbling and dumb at home.
Society can help men by showing them how to adopt different roles and values that will allow them to succeed, Rosin says.
Her book comes out September 11.