Warren Farrell

Warren Thomas Farrell (born June 26, 1943) is an American political scientist, activist, and author of seven books on men's and women's issues.

Farrell was born in 1943.

He is the eldest of three children born to an accountant father and housewife mother.

He grew up in New Jersey.

When the second wave of the women's movement evolved in the late 1960s, Farrell's support of it led the National Organization for Women's New York City chapter to ask him to form a men's group.

Farrell graduated from Midland Park High School in New Jersey in 1961.

Farrell received a B.A. from Montclair State University in social sciences in 1965.

As a college student, Farrell was a national vice-president of the Student-National Education Association, leading President Lyndon B. Johnson to invite him to the White House Conference on Education.

In 1966, he received an M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in political science and in 1974 a Ph.D. in the same discipline from New York University.

He was an assistant to the president of New York University.

Farrell has taught university level courses in five disciplines (psychology; women's studies; sociology; political science; gender and parenting issues).

These were at the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego; the California School of Professional Psychology; in the Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State; at Brooklyn College; Georgetown University; American University, and Rutgers.

Farrell initially came to prominence in the 1970s as a supporter of second wave feminism but has since become a leading figure of the men's rights movement.

He served on the New York City Board of the National Organization for Women (NOW).

Farrell advocates for "a gender liberation movement", with "both sexes walking a mile in each other's moccasins".

His books cover history, law, sociology and politics (The Myth of Male Power); couples' communication (Women Can't Hear What Men Don't Say, and Father and Child Reunion); economic and career issues (Why Men Earn More); child psychology and child custody (Father and Child Reunion); and teenage to adult psychology and socialization (Why Men Are The Way They Are, The Liberated Man and Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men).

The response to that group led to his ultimately forming some 300 additional men and women's groups and becoming the only man to be elected three times to the board of directors of the National Organization for Women in N.Y.C. (1971–74).

In 1974, Farrell left N.O.W. in N.Y.C. and his teaching at Rutgers when his wife became a White House Fellow and he moved with her to D.C. They subsequently divorced.

During his feminist period, Farrell wrote op-eds for The New York Times and appeared frequently on the Today show and The Phil Donahue Show, and was featured in People, Parade and the international media.

This, and his women and men's groups, one of which had been joined by John Lennon, inspired The Liberated Man.

The Liberated Man was written from a feminist perspective, introducing alternative family and work arrangements that could better accommodate working women and encourage care-giving men.

The Liberated Man was the beginning of Farrell's development of parallels for men to the female experience: for example, to women's experience as "sex objects", Farrell labeled men's parallel experience as "success objects."

As a speaker, Farrell was known for creating audience participation role-reversal experiences to get both sexes "to walk a mile in the other's moccasins."

The most publicized were his "men's beauty contest" and "role-reversal date."

In the men's beauty contest, all the men are invited to experience "the beauty contest of everyday life that no woman can escape."

In the "role-reversal date" every woman was encouraged to "risk a few of the 150 risks of rejection men typically experience between eye contact and intercourse."

By the mid-1980s, Farrell was writing that both the role-reversal exercises and the women and men's groups allowed him to hear women's increasing anger toward men, and also learn about men's feelings of being misrepresented.

He wrote Why Men Are The Way They Are to answer women's questions about men in a way he hoped rang true for the men.

He distinguished between what he believed to be each sex's primary fantasies and primary needs, stating that "both sexes fell in love with members of the other sex who are the least capable of loving: women with men who are successful; men with women who are young and beautiful."

He asserts that women feel disappointed because, "the qualities it takes to be successful at work are often in tension with the qualities it takes to be successful in love."

Similarly he asserts that men feel disappointed because, "a young and beautiful woman ('genetic celebrity') often learns more about receiving, not giving, while older and less-attractive women often learn more about giving and doing for others, which is more compatible with love."

Due partially to Oprah Winfrey's support, Why Men Are the Way They Are became his bestselling book.

In 1993, Farrell wrote The Myth of Male Power, in which he argued that the widespread perception of men having inordinate social and economic power is false, and that men are systematically disadvantaged in many ways.

The book became a foundational text of the Men's Rights Movement, and made Farrell one of its leading figures.

The Myth of Male Power was ardently challenged by some academic feminists, whose critique is that men earn more money, and that money is power.

Farrell concurs that men earn more money, and that money is one form of power.

However, Farrell also adds that "men often feel obligated to earn money someone else spends while they die sooner—and feeling obligated is not power."

In a 1997 interview, Farrell stated: "Everything went well until the mid-seventies when NOW came out against the presumption of joint custody. I couldn't believe the people I thought were pioneers in equality were saying that women should have the first option to have children or not to have children — that children should not have equal rights to their dad."

Farrell's books each contain personal introductions that describe his perspective on how aspects of public consciousness and his own personal development led to the book.

All of his books are related to men's and women's studies, including his March 2018 publication The Boy Crisis.