What is happening to Fathers lately? We’re not even sure we need them anymore. We still need women to give birth to our children but now with gay rights being tossed around as a really good thing, gender roles are not important any more. You just need good parents no matter what they are carrying around in their pants.

There are many kids that don’t even know who their Father or sperm doner is. When a child is bare assed running through the streets neglected, the police try to find the neglectful Mother and put her in jail. Quite often the father isn’t even mentioned. Forget about demanding where the father is and his parenting duties. They check on child support checks if the parents are divorced but there is no requirement to be a Father.

It’s not even a “Man’s World” anymore. Fathers and all men need a pat on the back. Yes I said it. They are being pushed to the back of the line. Can they take it? More than 60% of Masters Degrees are now being held by women. Women earn more than half of all Doctorate Degrees. More women are following the ranks of Doctors, Lawyers and top professionals.

Men got hit hardest by the recession by loosing so many jobs that it should be called the “Mancession.” 10% of men are now un-employed whereas women are only suffering 8% un-employment. The tide has changed, there are more women than men in the work-place. Men are loosing out on the future. The 10 occupations expected to add the most jobs by 2018 don’t sound very manly. Occupations like Nursing, Customer Service and Teaching are nearly all dominated by women and all expected to add jobs.

After all that, on average, men die 5 years earlier than women. Men have to compete these days. They have to be smart and now look youthful too. Back when living an old age was an achievement, gray hair was a sign of wisdom and distinction. A gray haired man was “distinguished.” Back in George Washington’s day men wore white wigs. Now, more than ever men are turning back the clock by dying their hair.

Yes, men are hitting the bottle. Not beer in a bar. The hair dye bottle has become a comfort zone for loosing their job, marriage, feeling old, no money from divorce settlements, a multitude of reasons for a man to need change in their lives. Since 1999 the number of men dying their hair has doubled. Their products are better. A man can find a hair product that only changes some of the hair darker for a more subtle look in 5 minutes. Most women’s hair dying products take 30 minutes or more and changes the entire look.

Unless you are a dictator like Kaddafi, or Berlusconi, or Kim Jung Il who all are old with really dark dyed hair. Most men still desire a little grey as they age. However, some think it is great to be grey like Bill Clinton, Jay Leno, Anderson Cooper and Steve Martin who are all famous and very grey. Even George Clooney has gone grey. Men want to dye. Not on the battle field but in the hair salon.

Back to Fathers. On the third Sunday in June, families across America, as well as more than 55 countries around the world, celebrate Father’s Day. It is a day chosen to recognize all the hard work dads do all year long in supporting and taking care of their families. As a tradition, Father’s Day celebrations began more than a century ago, but it took decades for it to become an official holiday. Why?

 Because most people thought a day set aside to honor dads was a joke.

A man didn’t even think of the day idea. A woman named Sonora Smart Dodd from Spokane, Washington, got the idea after listening to a church service about Mother’s Day. Dodd’s father, William Jackson Smart, was a Civil War veteran who had raised Sonora and her five siblings alone after their mother died during childbirth.

Sonora had grown up watching her single father work so hard to do the job of both mother and father, and thought fathers should also be recognized on a special day. Sonora’s idea attracted the support of church leaders, and the first Father’s Day was observed on June 19, 1910 since June was the month of William Smart’s birthday.

The idea of Father’s Day was initially ridiculed. Skeptics viewed it as an attempt to create a promotional holiday for the purpose of buying gifts. This view persisted despite the support of religious groups, and despite the fact that the inspiration for the holiday was a war veteran who had raised six children on his own.

It was actually the feared “commercialization” of Father’s Day that saved it. In 1938, a group of merchants in New York City formed the National Council for the Promotion of Father’s Day. The council did not shy away from admitting that they were interested in promoting the holiday to boost sales, but they also believed that “commercializing” Father’s Day would preserve it and therefore give fathers their deserved recognition.

President Lyndon Johnson finally issued the first official proclamation designating the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day in 1966. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed it into law. Father’s Day was now a national holiday, and it had only taken over 60 years!