Are we witnessing the feminization of America? And if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Or is it, like so many quiet but ineluctable trends, a combination of the two?

Perceptions of feminization come from some unexpected quarters. The (mostly) free market economist Tyler Cowen sees it as a long-term trend, going back to the suffragist movement a century ago and women’s inclination to prefer the perils of peace to the risks of war. “You might argue that I had the best of both worlds,” he reflects as he nears 60, “namely to grow up in the ‘tougher’ society, but live most of my life in the more feminist society.”