Women complain chaps today won't settle down. Sorry, ladies, but it's all your fault, argues a wickedly provocative new book
According to the Office for National Statistics, marriage in Britain is at its lowest level since 1895
A controversial new book argues that the triumph of feminism has meant men are now second-class citizens.
On
Saturday, in our first extract, it laid bare how men are abused,
belittled and exploited. Today, it shows how men are treated unfairly in
marriage and fatherhood.
George
Clooney, Benedict Cumberbatch and Eddie Redmayne may have all taken the
plunge recently — but they are a diminishing band of brothers, for the
number of men marrying in the West has plunged in recent decades.
The state of matrimony is not just ailing. It is dying out faster than a mobile phone battery.
According
to the Office for National Statistics, marriage in Britain is at its
lowest level since 1895. In 2011, there were just 286,634 ceremonies — a
41 per cent free fall from 1972, when 480,285 couples tied the knot.
For
an army of women, Mr Right is simply not there, no matter how hard they
look for him. And the reason? When it comes to marriage, men are on
strike.
Why? Because the rewards are far less than they used to be, while the cost and dangers it presents are far greater.
‘Ultimately,
men know there’s a good chance they’ll lose their friends, their
respect, their space, their sex life, their money and — if it all goes
wrong — their family,’ says Dr Helen Smith, author of Why Men Are
Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood And The American Dream.
‘They
don’t want to enter into a legal contract with someone who could
effectively take half their savings, pension and property when the
honeymoon period is over.
‘Men aren’t wimping out by staying unmarried or being commitment phobes. They’re being smart.’
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