Boys are in trouble – here’s how we start fixing them

Like the institute, the centre is a strictly non-partisan, charitable organisation, committed to a better conversation about boys and men, based on facts rather than stereotypes and geared towards positive solutions. As the institute’s success has shown, the demand in the US for a balanced, evidence-based conversation on what’s really happening with boys and men is strong. Governors in states such as Maryland and Michigan are instructing their administrations to work on the worsening outcomes for boys and men in education, work and mental health. Colleges and universities are setting up programmes to attract and retain more male students. Businesses are investing in better mental health for men.

The same appetite seems to exist in the UK. This is for a simple reason: for the problems of boys and men are real – in our schools, in the labour market, in our families. They have been neglected by policymakers, academics and the media. Neglected problems turn into grievances; grievances can be exploited by reactionaries.

Thankfully, there are signs of progress. The government’s men’s health strategy, launched in April and for which evidence is now being taken, should be an important guide to policy. But the mere fact of it sends a powerful signal to our boys and men: we’ve noticed your challenges, and we are working to address them.

The UK is one of the few advanced economies where male life expectancy is falling. Heart disease deaths are rising among men. Male suicide rates are rising – by 6% in 2023 alone. Men are more than three times likelier than women to take their own lives and among men aged 20 to 34 in England, suicide is the leading cause of death. Male suicide accounts for three times as many deaths as car crashes.

Men’s health is deteriorating most markedly in the poorest parts of the country, especially the industrial north. Research from Movember, the men’s health charity, finds that men living in the 10 constituencies with the highest premature death rates are more than three times as likely to die before the age of 75 as men living in the 10 constituencies with the lowest rates.

When men are unhealthy, they work less. But unemployment is also bad for health, so it’s a vicious cycle. The government has set ambitious goals for increasing employment overall. But the trends for men are going in the opposite direction. The male employment rate is down by 2.5 percentage points since 2019. Meanwhile, the male prison population is up. Men under the age of 25 now earn less than their female peers, for one good reason – women are earning more – and one bad one: wages for men in this age bracket have been stagnant for decades.

Boys start school more than three months behind their female classmates. This gender gap only persists as the years pass – one reason I have argued for a later start date for boys, since they develop later. Girls easily outpace their male classmates at GCSE and A-level. Small wonder there is now a more than 10-percentage point gender gap in university attendance, much wider than the reverse gap the other way in 1970.

Meanwhile, the share of male teachers has dropped below one in four. One in three primary schools have no male teachers at all. If we don’t want our boys looking for role models in the recesses of the internet, maybe we should provide more of them at the front of the classroom. Better pay would certainly help here. There’s also a lack of investment in vocational training, which tends to suit boys better. Overall, the picture is clear: the education system is simply not boy-friendly.

Identifying the challenges of boys and men does not mean ignoring those facing girls and women, including a stubborn pay gap among older workers, the risk of violence and harassment, and continued under-representation of women in senior corporate and professional roles. Gender equality is not a zero-sum game. Two things can be true at the same time.

Ignoring male issues is bad politics too. So it’s heartening to see politicians like Wes Streeting in the UK and Governor Wes Moore of Maryland in the US leading the way here, showing not only that progressives can take on the issues of boys and men, but that they must. In launching the men’s health strategy, Streeting spoke personally, acknowledging that “it can be hard to be a young man in today’s society, particularly for boys from backgrounds like mine”. Moore, in his “State of the State” address in February, drew attention to the need to “make sure our men and boys aren’t still falling behind”.

It is abundantly clear to most of us that a world of floundering men is unlikely to be one of flourishing women. Far from a battle of the sexes, what is required is for men and women to support each other, and to rise together.

Photograph by Kimberly White/Getty