No Man's Land: Men's Changing Commitments to Family and Work

``Why do some men hold on to the breadwinner ethic, while others flee the responsibilities of parenthood and still others involve themselves in family life more than men in earlier generations?'' asks Gerson, a New York University sociology professor ( Hard Choices ). She explored the question by interviewing 138 New York-area men in their 30s and 40s. Their responses leave no doubt that these men, even the married, reject the breadwinner role, are listless on the subject of marriage, remarriage and children, and feel ambivalent about male dominance. Nevertheless, some of them want to be king of the castle and seek women who allow them to ``rule.'' Yet another group wants equalitarian relationships and wishes to stay home with their children. Gerson does not judge their reactions. Rather, she views the shifts in men's role as a function of a changing economy and of the move of women into the workplace. The diversity in male roles will continue, she predicts in this revealing study, and society with it. Author tour. (July)