Dorment's Essay 'Why Men Still Can' T Have It All

In society today, it is often assumed that women are the victims of atrocious oppression at the hands of men. This belief consists of the thoughts that women are held back by unequal pay, being denied leadership roles, having to be the primary caretaker of children, and more. Richard Dorment is his essay “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All” explores this topic and attempts to show a different view. He shows the negative aspects of feminism and why it is really causing more harm than good. This stance challenges a movement that proclaims it is fighting for an honorable cause. In his essay, Dorment shows how feminism has changed today’s society and why neither men nor women can “have it all.” This text digs deep into the topic of feminism and shows

The man happens to be the wife of Sheryl Sandberg, who wrote “Lean In”, a text that contradicts many of Dorment’s points. Dave and Sheryl split the housework 50/50, and they seem to run a successful household (Dorment 705). Dorment uses quote from Dave: “I have no idea if it’s societal or genetic or whatever, but it’s certainly real that I think my wife feels more guilty than I do when she’s gone from the kids. There’s no question.” (709). Dorment uses this quote to back his point that women feel guilty when they are in the workplace instead of caring for their kids. Dave says he does not understand why women are this way (“no idea if it’s societal or genetic or whatever”). Obviously, this is not talking about all women, but only women with children, so this is speaking to a select area of society. Dorment says that although most men miss their kids at work, they feel as though they must be at work to provide for the family (709). He uses phrases such as “social conditioning” and “genetic predisposition” to describe possible reasons why men and women act the way they do. However, no matter what it is, he says, there is still this behavior, and Dorment is connecting this with the issue of trying to force men and women to switch gender roles, and why this switching can have negative

He brings up Sandberg’s speech to Harvard where she claimed that “ambitious, assertive women are generally less well liked than ambitious, assertive men” (Dorment 712). To this claim, Dorment states “Women might suspect that men don’t like assertive, confrontational women, which is only half the truth…nobody wants to work with a nightmare of either gender.” Dorment’s reply implies that the real problem is inappropriate behavior of people in general, regardless of gender. It does not matter whether you are a male or female, employers may not want to hire you if you are too confrontational. The word “confrontational” is an important one that Dorment uses, because it is generally understood that it has negative connotations. He appeals to people’s past experience with working with confrontational people and connects those experiences back to this