The plight of the weaker gender

Rich Lowry: The subtext of the culture's permissiveness toward the 'child-man' is that he isn't that important. 'With women moving ahead in an advanced economy,' Kay Hymowitz writes in her new book, Manning Up: How the Rise of Women has Turned Men into Boys, 'provider husbands and fathers are now optional, and the character qualities men had needed to play their role -- fortitude, stoicism, courage, fidelity -- are obsolete and even a little embarrassing.'