"Man's World" is a song recorded, written, and produced by Welsh singer-songwriter Marina for her fifth studio album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land (2021). The song was also produced by American musician Jennifer Decilveo, who Marina enlisted as part of her effort to work with an all-female production team. It was released as the album's lead single on 18 November 2020 by Atlantic Records. A stripped-down version of the song was made available the next month. Atlantic commissioned two remixes of the song, which were produced by Muna and Empress Of featuring Pabllo Vittar, and released in 2021. "Man's World" is a midtempo alternative pop track with a piano-driven beat and a dreamy sound. Its lyrics criticize history's oppressive treatment of women and minority groups, and Marina states that she no longer wishes to live in a world exclusively led by men.
The song received positive reviews from music critics, and Marina's fulfillment of her promise to work with all-females on the track was commonly discussed. Commercially, "Man's World" entered New Zealand's Hot 40 Singles chart and reached the lower positions of the United Kingdom's downloads and sales component charts, compiled by the Official Charts Company. The accompanying music video for the song was released the same day as the song and directed by Alexandra Gavillet. Filmed in Simi Valley, California, it features the singer performing evocative choreography with a troupe of similarly dressed dancers and was inspired by the works of the neoclassicism movement.
Background and release
In 2019, Marina released Love + Fear, her fourth studio album and first without the "and the Diamonds" part of her former stage name. To promote the project, she embarked on the accompanying Love + Fear Tour later in the year and released her sixth extended play Love + Fear (Acoustic) in September 2019. Following the tour's completion, she began songwriting for a new album; in January 2020, Marina posted to her Instagram account, confirming that she was working on songs, with a photograph that used the caption "Album 5". Another post revealed that she had also been writing lyrics while on holiday in Paris. Later into the year, she released the standalone single "About Love" in February, which was featured on the soundtrack to the American romantic comedy film To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020).
Throughout the summer months, Marina teased that she was close to finishing the album and had plans to release new material soon. Former interviews claimed that her next studio album would feature a team of female musicians, in contrast to her experience with Love + Fear in 2019. Behind her intentions, she stated that she was startled to learn "that only two per cent of producers and three per cent of engineers across popular music are women". In September 2020, Marina shared a snippet of a previously unreleased song called "Happy Loner", leaving critics to assume that new music from the singer would arrive shortly. On 13 November 2020, she officially confirmed the release of a new song, titled "Man's World", when she posted the single's cover artwork to her social media accounts. She also posted a photograph of herself containing the lyric "I don't wanna live in a man's world anymore". Mike Wass, a contributor to Idolator, remarked that "Marina has traditionally spent several years on projects" so the announcement of "Man's World" was unexpected.