Marston Marryott
Professor Morris
ENG 112.0041 – Comparative Rhetorical Analysis
25 March 2023
The Elusive Work-Life Balance for Men
In families with two working parents, the classic debate infers that women struggle more to achieve a work-life balance. In 2013, Richard Dorment, senior editor of Wired magazine, wrote the entertaining and thought-provoking essay “Why Men Still Can’t Have It All,” that was published in Esquire magazine (617). Using logos and pathos, Dorment provides a father’s perspective of work-life balance, appealing to the male audience. Dorment’s informal tone ranges from mocking to serious. Dorment argues that neither women nor men can equally balance work and family life. A separate, authoritative essay, “Working
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Dorment’s purpose for writing his essay was to respond to an earlier, feminist-inspired article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” by Anne-Marie Slaughter. Dorment humorously announces, “Two men wrote … which must make it true … Men are to blame for pretty much everything” (621). He then becomes serious, apologetically observing that “Men have oppressed their wives and sisters and daughters [throughout] recorded history” (621). He continues with a guilty acknowledgment and sincere appreciation why women do not “trust us to share everything 50-50” (Dorment 621). The author accepts the blame that men may not help equally with the family based on past events, evoking logical reasoning and inspiring empathy towards the wife. Dorment reveals that his wife earns more money than …show more content…
Their surveys and studies, collected from over 3500 working fathers in the United States, comprised Gen X (1965-1980) and the Millennial generation (1981-2000) (Beutell and Behson 69). Using analogies between working fathers of Generation X [ages 18-29] and the Millennial generation [ages 30-43], Beutell and Behson seek to discover “whether work-family dynamics differ” (67, 69). They rely on ethos and logos: using statistics captured from surveys, their research offers ethical and logical credibility that men from the two generations endure similar and dissimilar challenges with