Lost Boys

Boys and young men are in crisis. Whilst the last hundred years have been marked by great leaps forward in outcomes and rights for women, in this generation it is boys who are being left behind. And by some margin.

From the day they start primary school, to the day they leave higher education, the progress of boys lags behind girls. The proportion of young men failing to move from education into employment or training has been steadily growing for thirty years. Since the pandemic alone, the number of males aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) has increased by a staggering 40 per cent compared to just seven per cent or females. For those young men who are in work, the much-vaunted gender pay gap has been reversed. Young men are now out-earned by their female peers, including among the university educated.

The growing divergence in boys’ and girls’ outcomes does not only apply to education and employment. We are also seeing a growing divide in the social and political attitudes of the sexes. In Britain, as in countries across the developed world, young men are increasingly drawn to conservative, traditionalist or right-wing political movements, whilst young women become ever more liberal and left-progressive. In an increasingly online existence, boys and girls no longer walk the same path from childhood to adulthood, with their interests, values and aims in life increasingly incompatible with each other. As Britain grapples with an epidemic of family breakdown, millions of boys are deprived of any positive model of manhood.

For boys and young men in Britain—especially those who are poor—the picture is an increasingly bleak one. And, where the divergence is particularly apparent, we also highlight different outcomes across certain ethnic groups. Over the coming months, the CSJ will be looking for solutions to this growing problem. This report aims to paint a stark picture of what is happening in six significant areas of life. It makes the urgent case that action is needed.

This report will not cover every issue facing young men and boys, but it is a start.