Are Men Necessary? cover art

Are Men Necessary?

When Sexes Collide

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Are Men Necessary?

By: Maureen Dowd
Narrated by: Maureen Dowd
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

 Four decades after the sexual revolution, nothing has worked out the way it was supposed to. The sexes are circling each other as uneasily and comically as ever, and now the New York Times columnist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for incisive commentary about the mysteries and muddles of sexual combat in America sorts through the confusion.

In a new book filled with chapters that surprise and amuse, Dowd explains why getting ready for a date went from glossing and gargling to Paxiling and Googling; why men may be biologically unsuited to hold higher office, given their diva fits and catfights, teary confessions and fashion obsessions; why women are fixated on their looks more than ever; and why the new definition of "having it all" is less about empowerment and equality than about flirting and getting rescued, downshifting from "You go, girl!" to "You go lie down, girl."

Women's liberation has been less a steady trajectory than a confusing zigzag. Feminism lasted for a nanosecond and generated a gender tangle that has bewitched, bothered, and bewildered men and women for 40 years. Now comes a woman to cut through the tangle and tickle Adam's rib. The battle of the sexes will never be the same.

©2005 Maureen Dowd (P)2005 Penguin Audio Gender Studies Social Sciences

Critic reviews

"Dowd is hilarious, cutting, and provocative." (Booklist)

“She'll keep you turning pages...Dowd has a voice that carries.” (People)

“No one vets the culture with a keener eye than Dowd.” (Chicago Tribune)
All stars
Most relevant  
Dowd is unstoppable! What a force! Such a pleasure to put a voice to a name so familiar from her newspaper columns. Came away brimming with so much more information than I had anticipated from the title. Scintillating dinner party factoids galore. Bravo, Maureen!

One of the best books I’ve read in recent years

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.