It is not at all unusual for me to receive emails concerning the columns I write. And, whether positive or negative, I appreciate them all. I appreciate the positive ones because they are so encouraging and make me glad that I write — and because I have made some very dear friends through them. But I also appreciate the negative ones. For starters, anyone who takes the time to write has given something precious: their time. Secondly, I have found that negative emails are often excellent opportunities to teach.
And that is, I believe, the case with an email I received concerning last week’s column, which came with the subject line, “Men as warriors?! Really?” The email said, among other things, “You often try to present yourself as a level-headed academic and informed religious teacher, but between the lines you present a message that is clearly patriarchal and outdated. Your antiquated view of women is evident in your absurd statement in today’s column (which I hope I am just misunderstanding) in which you say, “What rational society thinks it is a good idea to weaken and villainize its chief warriors, builders and providers (which, because of its context, means men)?”
I pointed out to the emailer that his argument was an emotional argument rather than a factual argument. According to military data, our Army is 84.3% male and 15.7% female. In a volunteer force, it is overwhelmingly men who do that volunteering; it is in their nature to do so. It is also in their biology and anatomy. The average height of a man worldwide is 5-foot-9, compared to the average height of a woman as 5-foot-4. The average weight of a man is 199.8 pounds, while the average weight of a woman is 170.8. And technology, while it can certainly overcome many things, has never yet removed the need for boots on the ground — and most of those boots are male boots. And it is not just us; not a single military on Earth is majority female; every single one is majority male. Mind you, this is not at all to denigrate the amazing contribution of women in the military. It is merely a factual reality that in a world where some women choose to be warriors, men around the world continue to be the chief warriors.
As for builders, like it or not, men are indeed still our chief builders. Per the Construction Employers Association, 93.8% of construction jobs are filled by men, while 6.2% are filled by women. Your local roofing crews and concrete crews and framing crews are something you should pay attention to; reality is what it is on this. Some women doubtless do these tasks and do them well. But men are still our chief builders.
On the chief provider front, per a Pew Research study, “In about a third of married or cohabiting couples in the United States, women bring in half or more of the earnings, a significant increase from the past. But in most couples, men contribute more of the income, and this aligns with the fact that Americans place a higher value on a man’s role as financial provider.