RA #2

Title: The Death of Macho
Author: Reihan Salam
Date: June 22, 2009
Topic: How the male-dominant leaders of the financial world helped create the recent recession and its impact on gender roles in the workforce today.

Exigence: The 2008 economic meltdown and the collective crisis that ensued for millions of working men around the globe.
Intended Audience: Individuals in the labor force, as well as the general population of all developed nations.
Purpose: To help convey the momentum-gaining idea that men are no longer the primary income earners of the household, and how this change in status quo is occurring throughout the world.
Claim(s): That the “era of male dominance is coming to an end,” and the recent recession impacted men much more than females (with 80% of the total job losses occurring to men). 

Main Evidence:  Right from the beginning of the article, Salam brings up various statistics regarding out-of-work men in the U.S. and across Europe, including the stat that 28 million men are expected to be put out work by the end of 2009 (the article was written earlier that year). He compares these statistics to the women losing work, and shows that economic sectors traditionally dominated by men are declining faster and faster compared to those traditionally dominated by women. Salam also references nations around the world transitioning from male leaders to female head of states, including Iceland and Lithuania, with a banned newspaper headline from the latter stating, “The country is to be saved by a woman.” The housing bubble is also brought up, in which the author states that “[the] bubble actually represented an economic policy that disguised the declining prospects of blue-collar men” (#).  The stimulus package introduced by President Barack Obama is mentioned to show how the jobs that are to be created from said plan would be primarily focused in education, healthcare, and other social services, fields in which women are the predominant work force.


Writer’s Strategy #1: The author states countless statistics and researches from various credible sources, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Journal of Public Health, and various economists and scientists from accredited institutions like Princeton.
Writer’s Strategy #2: Salam’s choice of words effectively use emotion as a form of persuasion, along with his overall passion shown by his extensive research.
Writer’s Strategy #3: Brings into picture “staggering” facts and statistics regarding our world economy and the horrific predicted state of it in order to convince the reader that what he is proposing is truly damaging to our society. 

Reader Effect #1: Gives the author credibility in terms of his argument and allows the reader to take the author more seriously because of this.
Reader Effect #2: Shows the reader that the author is dedicated to what he is writing about, allowing the reader to take the author’s point to heart.
Reader Effect #3: Reader is effectively persuaded by the author’s use of logical connections to statistics and by his general use of reasoning.

My Response: I believe the author does an overall effetive job in using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to persuade the reader to understand the point he is trying to present, although I do believe he could have used a better emotional approach. Personally though, I felt as if I couldn't understand at first what side he was speaking for at first. I also believe that the point the author is trying to make isn't as significant as he is making it seem. The author would have persuaded me more if he presented more counter points in order to show a more balanced argument.