Boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail at all three key school subjects: maths, reading and science
In the US, the wages of most men are lower today than they were in 1979, while women’s wages have risen across the board
In the UK, suicide is the biggest killer of men under the age of 45
Boys are falling behind at school and college because the educational system is structed in ways that put them at a disadvantage. Men are struggling in the labour market because of an economic shift away from traditionally male jobs. And fathers are dislocated because the cultural role of family provider has been hollowed out. The male malaise is not the result of a mass psychological breakdown, but of deep structural challenges.
Structural challenges require structural solutions, and this is what Richard V. Reeves proposes in Of Boys and Men – starting boys at school a year later than girls; getting more men into caring professions; rethinking the role of fatherhood outside of a nuclear family context.
Feminism has done a huge amount of good in the world. We now need its corollary – a positive vision of masculinity that is compatible with gender equality.
Richard Reeves is Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, in Washington D.C.. A transplanted Brit, his former roles include Director of Strategy to the Deputy Prime Minister, and Director of the think-tank Demos. In 2017, Politico magazine named Richard one of the top 50 thinkers in the U.S. for his work on class and inequality.
His most recent book, Dream Hoarders, was a ‘Book of the Year’ in The Economist and the Observer, and he is also the author of John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand, which was shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize.
A father to three sons, Richard lives with his family in Chevy Chase, Maryland, U.S.