The first question is whether men have always been this way or whether this behavior has been precipitated by the profound changes in the roles of men and women which have occurred in the 20 th century. Another issue is that these changes in the relationships between men and women, which started around the time of the Second World War when women first moved into the work place in large numbers has undergone another profound change in the 1970s and 1980s as the roles of men and women in the workplace have been equalized. No longer is the man the sole provider for this family or the provider who is assisted by his wife, but now they are joint providers and many American families are now experiencing the situation where the woman is the dominant provider. This chapter will unfold in the next decade. So what happens to men.
Some men experience a true biological menopause like women do.
This is called viropause or andropause and will be discussed in another article. Most men however experience a developmental change in their psyche as they reach a point in their lives where the need to fulfill the traditional roles of achieving power, wealth, success, fame is resolved, either through success or failure or simply being tired. While the relationships of early adulthood between the sexes has been traditionally one of separation and marked differences because the woman is tied up with her children and home and the man with work, things change and the roles of men and women often tend to converge and even cross over so that the role of the man and women are quite different in late adulthood. Many men in their fifties develop a nurturing, artistic and expressive self while many women of the same age become more assertive, focused, and political. Of course this data is very preliminary.