Martin van Creveld - The Privileged Sex

By the time I began working on this edition of The Privileged Sex in early 2013, a decade had passed since I first published the book, in German. I expected that extensive changes would be needed in order to bring it up to date, but was surprised to find that this was not the case. Though some of the details had changed, the essentials had not. In fact, today women are arguably more privileged than they were when I first began investigating the subject. In the early 1990s, for example, 300 million people lived in countries where mens life expectancy was higher than that of women. Today, the number is practically zero. In todays Europe, to cite another example, several countries have in place quotas reserving a minimum percentage of seats in parliament for women. The result has been far more women winning seats than would have been the case if elections were truly open and fair. One of those who owed at least part of her meteoric rise to this system is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. These are but two examples, and consequently this edition needed little beyond occasionally updating statistics and acknowledging those who have helped me in my research since Das Bevorzugte Geschlecht came out in 2003.

Now as ever, many feminist claims concerning the alleged oppression of women by men at various times and places are unfounded. Now as ever, both biologically and socially, becoming and being a man is in many ways harder than becoming and being a woman. Now as ever, men work longer hours, performing harder, dirtier and more dangerous work than women and suffering proportionally far more industrial accidents. Throughout history it was husbands who supported their wives, not the other way around. And in 9 of 10 households today, this remains the case. Women also receive proportionally far more welfare benefits. Around the world, the law in many ways treats men much more severely than women. In armed forces that admit women and by no means all do men proportionally suffer nearly 10 times more casualties than women. Women, meanwhile, receive far more medical attention, which helps to explain why, as mentioned above, womens life expectancy exceeds that of men. And in many other ways, women continue to enjoy a better quality of life. Yet none of these facts has prevented feminists from shedding tears over their lot. A man who yammers in the words of the late mother of feminism Betty Friedan is certain to be despised or ridiculed. But a woman doing the same and that is indeed what many feminists have done is much more likely to get what she wants.

Ever since I started writing about women and feminism in the late 1990s, my views on these subjects have gotten me into endless trouble. Those troubles have taught me that Freud was, in fact, wrong. The strongest human drive is not sex it is the desire to make others shut up. As a man who has dared disagree with feminist myths, however incredible and foolish they might be, I have learned over the past dozen years just how strong that desire is among the guardians of feminism. In publishing this new version of The Privileged Sex, I invite readers to study the facts and come to their own informed conclusions.

Jerusalem, March 2013