Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It

by Richard V. Reeves

For every 100 bachelor’s degrees awarded to women, 74 are awarded to men.)

Women earn more BAs than men.

First,

One in five fathers are not living with their children.5 Men account for almost three out of four “deaths of despair,” either from a suicide or an overdose.6

1/5 men do not live with their kids. 3/4 deaths of despair happen to men.

Second,

In 1979, the weekly earnings of the typical American man who completed his education with a high school diploma, was, in today’s dollars, $1,017. Today it is 14% lower, at $881.7

Average weekly earnings of men who only have hs diploma is $881/wk.

To be male, poor, and African-American … is to confront, on a daily basis, a deeply held racism that exists in every social institution,”

Black men have it worse.

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth,

Sixth,

We need a prosocial masculinity for a postfeminist world.

In 1972, the U.S. government passed the landmark Title IX law to promote gender equality in higher education. At the time, there was a gap

of 13 percentage points in the proportion of bachelor’s degrees going to men compared to women.4 By 1982 the gap had closed. By 2019, the gender gap in bachelor awards was 15 points, wider than in 1972—but the other way around.5

Black boys and those from poorer families, badly damages

Black boys do the worse.

In the U.S., for example, the 2020 decline in college enrollment was seven times greater for male than for female students.

7 times fewer boys go to college than women.

It is also worth noting that while women are catching up with men in the labor market, boys and men are falling further behind in the classroom.

Women catching up with men in labor market while guys are falling behind in the classroom.

My main message here is that there are stark gender gaps at every stage, and all around the world, many of which continue to widen.

See gender gap all around the world.

that’s because of the girls.

Finland does well on education tests because of its girls.

American boys do just as well as Finnish boys do on the PISA reading test.)

American boys do just about well as Finnish boys on reading tests.

Boys are 50% more likely than girls to fail at all three key school subjects: math, reading, and science.

Boys are more likely to fail at math, science, and reading.

Australia has devised a reading program called Boys, Blokes, Books and Bytes.

Australia has tried to tackle the problem with a program geared towards boys.

Girls are 14 percentage points more likely than boys to be “school ready” at age 5, for example, controlling for parental characteristics. This is a much bigger gap than the one between rich and poor children, or Black and white children, or between those who attend preschool and those who do not.12

Girls 14% more ready to attend school at age 5 than boys are.

Girls have always had an edge over boys in terms of high school grade point average (GPA), even half a century ago, when they surely had less incentive than boys given the differences in rates of college attendance and career expectations.

Girls have long had better GPAs than boys in high school.

the difference in the proportion of girls versus boys getting high grades is the same: 47% to 32%.

The difference in the proportion of girls getting better grades 47% to 32% is the same in rich schools and poor ones in Chicago.

In 2018, 88% of girls graduated from high school on time (i.e., 4 years after enrolling), compared to 82% of boys.21

States are required by federal law to report high school graduation rates by race and ethnicity, proficiency in English, economic disadvantage, homelessness, and foster status.

States don't seem to collect data on high school graduation rates based on gender.

Boys’ brains develop more slowly, especially during the most critical years of secondary education.

Boys' brains develop more slowly during critical years of secondary education.

Adolescence, then, is a period when we find it harder to restrain ourselves.

The parts of the brain associated with impulse control, planning, future orientation, sometimes labeled the “CEO of the brain,” are mostly in the prefrontal cortex, which matures about 2 years later in boys than in girls.

Pre frontal cortex develops more slowly in boys than girls, about 2 years later.

The cerebellum, for example, reaches full size at the age of 11 for girls, but not until age 15 for boys. Among other things, the cerebellum “has a modulating effect on emotional, cognitive, and regulatory capacities,” according to neuroscientist Gokcen Akyurek.

Cerebellum develops at 11 in girls and 15 in boys.

the biggest difference is not in how female and male brains develop, but when

Biggest difference in brain development between the sexes is when.

Women also receive the majority of law degrees, up from about one in twenty in 1970.38

Women receive the majority of law degrees.

In 2020, the law review at every one of the top sixteen law schools had a woman as editor-in-chief.42

The law reviews of every one of the top 16 schools had a female editor-in-chief.

Almost every college in the U.S. now has mostly female students.

Most colleges have more female students than male ones.

public colleges and universities, which educate the vast majority of students, are barred from discrimination on the basis of sex. This is one reason they skew even more female than private institutions.

Public colleges she more female than male because admissions officers can't discriminate on the basis of sex.

46% percent of female students enrolling in a public 4-year college have graduated 4 years later; for male students, the proportion is 35%. (The gap shrinks somewhat for 6-year graduation rates.)61

11% increase in number of women finishing college in 4 years over then number of men.

One factor that gets too little attention in these debates is the developmental gap, with the male prefrontal cortex struggling to catch up with the female one well into the early twenties.

Pre frontal cortex develops faster on women than it goes in men. men are still laying behind in development of that region in early 20s.

The deepest fissures in the labor market are not those between men and women. They are between white and Black workers and between the upper middle class and the middle class and working class, the subjects of chapters 4 and 5.

Deepest fissures in labor market are between the races and the classes.

But that would seem to have little applicability to the situations of most men, who individually feel not the reins of power in their hands but its bit in their mouths.”2

Beautiful sentence.

(Economists define the “prime” years as beginning at the age of 25 and ending, unnervingly, at 54.)

25-54: prime working years

The biggest fall in male employment has in fact been among young men, aged between 25 and 34, as figure 2-1 shows.7

Biggest fall in male employment has been along men 25-34.

Simply put, male jobs have been hit by a one-two punch, of automation and free trade.

Male jobs hit by automation and free trade.

Men … make up over 70 percent of production occupations, over 80 percent of transportation occupations, and over 90 percent of construction and installation occupations,” he writes.

As the muscular demands of work decline, men are becoming physically weaker; one study of grip strength, a good marker of overall strength, shows a sharp decline among men.19

Men getting weaker because of less physically demanding jobs.

Meanwhile, and perhaps more surprisingly, women are getting physically stronger.

Women getting stronger.

HEAL (health, education, administration, and literacy) jobs, which are dominated by women.

Health, education, administration, and literacy jobs need men.

The median real hourly wage for men peaked sometime in the 1970s and has been falling since. While women’s wages have risen across the board over the last four decades, wages for men on most rungs of the earnings ladder have stagnated.

Median real hourly wage peaked in 70s. Women's wages have risen across the board for 4 decades.

How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times by Roy Peter Clark,

Consider reading this.

40%.

40% of female works earn more than the median man.

Women are paid less because they do different work, or work differently, or both.

Women paid less because they do different work or work differently.