The Myth of Male Power [Paperback]

Warren Farrell (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 9, 2001

Farrell debunks the myth of male power. He dares to question the image of male-as-oppressor, arguing that this misconception has hindered not only men, but women as well.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Men who make their way through the interminable subtitle and embark on this orignal and significant study will find that they haven't lost the ability to cry after all. While some feminists may assert that it is an attack on women, the book attempts to show areas in which males operate at a disadvantage without claiming that women are responsible for their plight. Psychologist Farrell stresses economics, pointing out that the 25 worst types of jobs, involving the highest physical risk, are almost all filled by men. He also considers warfare, in which virtually all of the military casualties are men; the justice system, where sentences for males are customarily heavier; and sexual harassment, which has become a one-way street. He concludes with helpful advice on "resocializing" the male child, adolescent and adult. Clever cartoons enliven the text.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This seminal work challenges, debunks, and redirects many of the paradigms held about men and their relationships with women. Farrell ( The Liberated Man , LJ 2/1/75; Why Men Are The Way They Are , LJ 9/1/86) calls for a gender transition movement not specifically limited to men or feminists. He shows how men's workshops and feminist organizations promulgate sexism and support limited goals while not fully addressing the issues and responsibilities involved in fully empowering both sexes. Farrell's endnotes are more diversified and complete than many dissertations. This title is more important to the male/female relationship discussion than Robert Bly's Iron John ( LJ 11/15/90), Michael Gurian's The Prince and the King ( LJ 7/92), Sam Keen's Fire in the Belly ( LJ 2/15/91), or any of Betty Friedan's works (e.g., The Feminine Mystique , LJ 1/1/63). Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
- Scott Johnson, Meridian Community Coll. Lib., Miss.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 488 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425181448
• ISBN-13: 978-0425181447
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #37 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Research

More About the Author

Dr. Warren Farrell began his research on gender issues in the '60s. His first book, The Liberated Man, was published in 1974. It was from the women's perspective and the feminist perspective. By the '80s, he began noticing that men were feeling misrepresented, and his award-winning national best-seller, Why Men Are The Way They Are, was written to answer women's questions about men in a way that rings true for men. The New York Post calls it "the most important book ever written about love, sex, and intimacy."

By the '90s, Dr. Farrell felt the misunderstandings about men had deepened and become dangerous to the survival of families and love. He confronted the misunderstandings head-on with the award-winning The Myth of Male Power, a book the The Library Journal ranked as "better than Robert Bly's Iron John or any of Betty Freidan's works." (His books are published in over 50 countries in 15 languages.)

By the turn of the century Dr. Farrell wanted to provide the sexes with the tools to communicate-- in particular to hear personal criticism from a loved one, especially when given badly. That was the take-off point for Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, a selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. By 2001 Dr. Farrell completed research he had been working on for 13 years on the conditions under which children of divorce are most likely to be raised successfully. That book, Father and Child Reunion, has renewed the commitment of many dads to be with their children, and its research has helped judges understand the importance of dads.

Dr. Farrell's most recent research is published as Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap -- and What Women Can Do About It. It documents the 25 differences between men and women's work-life decisions. It was chosen by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top four "great career books to be read in 2006."

Warren has appeared on over 1000 TV and radio shows, and been interviewed frequently by Oprah and Barbara, and by Larry King and Peter Jennings. He has been featured repeatedly on 20/20 and in The New York Times, in People and on Real People, in men's journals and The Wall Street Journal, and on the Today Show, the Tomorrow Show, and even To Tell The Truth.

Warren Farrell's understanding of both sexes is symbolized by his being, on the one hand, on the boards of four national men's organizations, and on the other hand, being the only man in the US to be elected three times to the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Women in New York City. Similarly, he has started over 600 men's and women's groups, and over 200,000 women and men have attended his workshops worldwide. He is the only person chosen to speak at both of former California Governor Wilson's 1995 conferences - his Conference on Men and his Conference on Women.

President Johnson chose Dr. Farrell as one of the outstanding young educators in the United States. (The man's been around for awhile!) He has taught political science, psychology, women's studies and sociology, and most recently taught at the School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego. Dr. Farrell has been chosen by the International Biographic Centre of London as one of the World's 2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 20th Century and, in quite a different take, chosen by the Financial Times as one of the worlds top 100 Thought Leaders. He has also been selected by the Center for World Spirituality as one of the world's spiritual leaders.

Dr. Farrell is in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World, but his best moments are at home. He has two daughters and lives with his wife in Mill Valley, California, and virtually at www.warrenfarrell.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 83 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning, indispensible work for anyone--man or woman. January 21, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Audio Cassette

Around the time he published his most recent and to date most radical book, "The Myth of Male Power," Warren Farrell released these audiocassettes of the same title. Farrell's own recommendation of these tapes as the second step in educating the uninitiated about men's issues (the tapes of "Why Men Are the Way They Are" being the first step) is very well-taken. Information and philosophy are presented engagingly, accessibly, with little fluff or fanfare. Indeed, given Farrell's measured, reasonable voice and carefully presented, step-by-step documentation of his positions, the listener could be forgiven for momentarily failing to notice just how radical a vision of men's position these tapes present. It is only by reference to the current, twisted state of gender politics that one can even understand why Farrell's common-sense, compassionate, incisive approach is seen by some as so "dangerous."

The truth is that these tapes ARE dangerous. They imperil the listener's ability ever again to believe many of the whoppers masquerading as received truths about the "patriarchy," the alleged lower moral fiber of men relative to women, men's supposedly greater power, and many other myths. Farrell reminds us that neither gender wins unless both sexes win.

The tapes take the form of a dialog between the author and a male interviewer who leaves no feminist stone unturned in his scrutiny of Farrell's position. A former three-time New York City National Organization of Women board member, Farrell has no difficulty acknowledging the areas where women truly have been oppressed. But he also is not afraid to demolish some of the favored shibboleths about women's suffering.... For example, when experience, job requirements, and attractiveness of jobs are taken into account, women do NOT earn less than men. With the exception of rape, the more violent a crime, the more likely a MAN is to be the victim. Female heads of households have on average 141% the level of assets owned by male heads of households. Women also control most spending. Men are not inherently violent and will curb their natural protective instincts where three basic needs--adequate food, adequate water, and safety from attack---are met. Male violence, Farrell shows, is a response to powerLESSNESS, not power.

Farrell is not afraid of even the most potentially controversial issues. A detailed comparison between the position of men and blacks supports his provocative position that in many ways men are treated as slaves today. (We work longer hours, die sooner, and lose our children.) Nor is he afraid to say the emperor of feminist hypocrisy has no clothes. He notes that many women (and men) complain about men's killing while living in the countries and on the property obtained as a result of this killing.

Farrell addresses some topics that are rarely discussed. He notes the invisibility of men in less valued professions such as the highly hazardous and socially invaluable garbage collector job. He notes that a glass cellar keeps an overwhelming percentage of men in 24 of the 25 worst overall jobs. If we had the same percentage of safety inspections per capital each year as Japan, we would save the lives of 6,000 men and 400 women each year.

Farrell speaks carefully and is quick to crack a joke or poke gentle fun at himself, men, or women. But he is deadly serious about the importance of transforming the current highly polarized gender-based identity politics into a thankfulness for men's unique contributions and a compassion for their struggles to complement our concern for and appreciation of women.

Why the interviewer wonders, are we so slow to learn these facts? Because, Farrell answers, our instincts do not lead us to learn about male vulnerability, even where it exceeds women's. Female victims attract men, but male victims repel everyone. So we protest disproportionate capital punishment of blacks relative to whites but not the stunningly more disproportionate capital punishment of men relative to women. We protest corporal punishment of black boys but not of boys. Astoundingly, we learn that the greatest single predictor of the level of punishment for the same crime is the perpetrator's sex.

Farrell decires the seven legal defenses available only to women such as the "battered women's syndrome" and bemoans the unconstitutional special treatment of rape in criminal law. He notes the ten glass cellars of male existence, including suicide, prison, homelessness, the death professions, earlier death from all fifteen leading causes of death, greater vulnerability to death from accidents, circumcision, corporal punishment, capital punishment, and the draft.

Surpisingly, Farrell manages to retain some optimism about the future of relationships between men and women. For the first time in history, he says, what it takes for men and women to survive parallels what it takes for us to love effectively. Farrell closes these remarkable tapes with a moving plea that we some day reach a place where we can abandon men's rights and feminism and can all work together on a gender transition movement to expand the potential for all of us regardless of gender. Don't miss these superb cassettes. And be sure your mother, partner, and/or daughter don't miss them either. Our future may depend on it. Read more ›

255 of 294 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Review by leader in Men's Movement January 22, 2000

By Pradeep Ramanathan

Format:Paperback

The Myth of Male Power, by author and gender-reconciliation champion, Dr. Warren Farrell, is truly a landmark work. Over the course of the next century it will come to be seen for what it is: a bold and inexorable challenge to American society to rethink from its deepest foundations the present and past attitudes and approaches towards gender equality - an approach that has been dominated by victim feminism. The Myth of Male Power confronts the politically correct myths that undermine true equality and gender reconciliation. Given the current climate of politically correct misandry and the feminist hegemony of gender discourse, it takes tremendous courage to challenge the orthodoxy and establishment. Both Dr. Farrell and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, deserve the highest kudos for their willingness to face the fire on this one.

One thing that makes The Myth of Male Power so fair-minded and authentic is that it affirms the legitimate concerns of women. Because of this, no female reader need fear that it is simply the flip side of feminism (ie: an ideology that preaches that society is actually not male-dominated and patriarchal, but female dominated and matriarchal, and that all problems are due to women with men its primary victims). This is important because it helps fair-minded men and women to see that Dr. Farrell is not seeking to replace feminism with masculism, or engage in "backlash". Indeed it demonstrates his absolute and unwavering commitment to real gender equality and fairness. At the same time, Dr. Farrell does not limit the discussion of gender to women's issues....

The Myth of Male Power explains how almost all societies in general (but American society in particular) are both matriarchal and patriarchal, how men's and women's roles provide unique benefits and limitations on each gender. Both men and women may be seen to be privileged and disadvantaged, each in different ways. Of course, the focus of the book, as the title suggests, is on the male role. This is done not to slight women's issues, but rather to supplement the ever-growing body of literature and research on gender issues which tends to frame the problems from an essentially female perspective.

Well researched, meticulously documented, and richly footnoted, The Myth of Male Power is sure to appeal to the intelligent reader, as well as to scholars who require the references to verify for themselves that no foul play is underfoot. Using a multi-modal approach, Dr. Farrell combines hard statistics, charts, and data tables, with cartoons, humor, and the moving personal anecdotes of individual men and women.

Despite its fair-minded and rigorously documented approach, it does take courage to read the book. Male readers will no longer be able to console themselves (if ever they did) with the myth that they have all the power and privilege in society. Female readers may feel threatened by the challenge to claim their power and its attendant requirement of authenticity and personal responsibility, rather than continuing to hide behind the apron strings of victim feminism.

Despite the strengths of The Myth of Male Power there will always be detractors to Dr. Warren Farrell's work. Why? There are reasons that the current climate of feminist misandry exists. A lot of men have a deep psychological investment in the code of chivalry - protecting women against all threats (real or imagined). Such men may misconstrue Dr. Farrell's challenge as an attack on women. (This is ironic given Farrell's understanding of women's issues, and credentials as the only man ever to have been elected three times to the board of directors of N.O.W. in New York city.) Similarly, a lot of women have a deep psychological investment in feminism and its cozy reassurance that women are always victims, never needing to feel responsible for any of the problems in their lives. Such men and women may find that the challenge of The Myth of Male Power is a threat to them and they may object vociferously. Fortunately, however, such voices are beginning to face some opposition. In my own years of experience as a leader in the movement for men's rights and the establishment of real gender equality, I have seen that men and women alike are now beginning to see through the feminist myths of male power and privilege. Many people are beginning to tire of hearing that women are victims and men oppressors. While this is a good start, the process of correcting society's anti-male biases is in its infancy. Dr. Farrell's book will be seen to have played a crucial role in helping us move towards real equality, and mutual love and respect between the sexes.

After reading this book, some readers (both men and women) may feel inspired to help take action to head off American society's headlong flight towards misandry, masculophobia, and the destruction of fatherhood and the American family. Such readers may consider joining or making a donation to gender-egalitarian organizations that work towards addressing the sex-discrimination faced by men and boys in our society (thus harming everyone, including women). For such readers, the National Coalition of Free Men (on whose Board of Advisors Dr. Farrell sits) offers a unique spring-board for social activism. NCFM is unique in that it is a generalist men's rights organization, not focussing only on one specific men's issue (such as father's rights, men's health, domestic violence, etc.), and because NCFM, founded in 1977, is a grassroots organizations with chapters, membership, and group meetings across the country. To learn more about the National Coalition of Free Men, please visit our website. For readers interested solely in Fathers' Rights, the National Congress for Fathers and Children is an excellent organization. Although women are welcome in these organizations, female readers may prefer organizations aimed primarily at women, like the Women's Freedom Network. The Myth of Male Power includes an appendix listing many other outstanding organizations committed to true gender equality and fairness.

With best wishes for a good read!

Pradeep Ramanathan, Executive Vice-President, National Coalition of Free Men Read more ›

61 of 70 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture Against Men June 2, 2001

By William L. Brown VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

In 1963, an anthropologist named Jules Henry wrote "Culture Against Man," which, in the words of fellow anthropologist Ashley Montagu, was "one of the most telling and creative examinations of American culture and values written in this century." In this book, where "man" was used in a generic sense (to refer to both men and women), Henry described "a culture torn by conflicting values, a national character made ambiguous by a people leading isolated, fragmented lives. ... [T]his society, so vigorously engaged in surviving physically, may also be dying emotionally."

I have often wished that someone should write a sequel to Henry's book, and only recently discovered that psychologist Warren Farrell had written just such a book in 1993 (now available in a 2001 edition with an updated introduction). Entitled "The Myth of Male Power," Farrell's book shows how, in an effort to achieve equal opportunity for women, extreme feminism has torn apart major parts of our culture and created a situation in which men and women are placed in confusing and conflicting roles that lead to dangerous and often deadly consequences for the men.

In example after example, Farrell shows that men, who were once believed to have a preponderance of power in our society, are now very much at risk. Of the firefighters who are killed on the job, 99 percent are men. A similar situation exists with police officers and soldiers (99.99% of the names on the Vietnam Memorial are of men). There are three times as many homeless men living on the streets by themselves as there are homeless children, adolescents and women combined. Women are significantly more likely to attend college than men, and to obtain a degree.... Also, women now live seven years longer than men (whereas in 1920, the life expectancy for men was a year longer than for women)--men die earlier than women from all fifteen of the leading causes of death!

Unlike many authors (who state a problem but offer no solutions), Farrell concludes his book with specific proposals for ending the "gender wars" and taking steps to improve the lots of men and women alike. His book is both comprehensive and readable, and I commend it to anyone who wants to obtain a balanced view of what has created the current state of conflict between men and women in our society, and what can be done to make things right. Read more ›