Every day we hear of a new inequality that must be ‘tackled’, another glass ceiling that must be ‘smashed’. Our national preoccupation with fashionable identity politics has had many consequences; crucially, it has hidden from view one large group of people that are genuinely and increasingly disadvantaged. I’m referring, of course, to boys and young men, especially those who are poor.
The statistics are stark. Boys are falling behind girls in every stage of education, from nursery to university. Boys are twice as likely to be expelled from school. 96% of prisoners are men. Suicide is now the biggest killer of men under 50. Young men earn less than their female peers, and – for the first time since records began – are more likely to be unemployed or economically inactive. Fatherlessness in childhood seems to have a particularly stark impact on the mental health of young men, yet boys are more likely now to own a smartphone than to live with their dad.
A lot of the concern regarding the impact of technology and social media on the young has focussed on girls, who certainly are suffering with increased rates of anxiety and self-harm. But there has been much less attention paid to the experiences of boys online, which include debilitating gaming addiction and an exposure to violent and extreme pornography from a young age. In schools and in the media there is a tendency to condemn maleness as ‘toxic masculinity’ with boys left wondering if it is even possible to be a ‘good’ man.
We have been so focussed on the relative performance of different minority groups – and so careless in our downgrading of the traditional masculine virtues – that we are in danger of leaving a whole generation of boys without hope. Large numbers of disenfranchised young men are always a destructive force in society; the riots over the summer were in large part a reaction to the sharp decline in value and status felt by working class British males.
We can fill more column inches about equal opportunities and the gender pay gap. We can scratch our heads about why more girls don’t study physics at A Level and opine about the moral failings of Andrew Tate. But as we do so we are in danger of losing a generation of boys, forgetting that strong and stable societies need strong and confident men. Boys are not born knowing how to harness their natural masculine tendencies for good; they must be taught, trained, encouraged and inspired. When the cultural narrative turns traditional male attributes such as strength and risk-taking from virtue into vice, we should not be surprised when young men struggle to find their place in education, employment and wider society.
This crisis in masculinity is already taking its toll. Almost all of the post-pandemic increase in young people who are not in education, employment in training is driven by men – a 40% rise amongst males compared to just 7% for females. Our prisons are bursting, sexual violence exploding. Sectors that are crying out for men – construction, trades, the armed forces – are struggling to recruit. We must step in to rescue a generation of boys and men who are at risk of falling out of society at great cost to themselves and us all.
That is why the Centre for Social Justice is launching ‘Lost Boys’, a major new research project that seeks to understand what is going wrong for boys and men. Today we have published our call for evidence, giving young men – and those who live and work with them – the chance to express what it’s like growing up male in Britain today. With high profile supporters such as Lawrence Dallaglio and Courtney Laws we will be investigating how boys are impacted by our education system, parental separation, gangs and pornography and what we can do to turn things around.
As the mother of two boys I want nothing more than for them to feel hopeful about their lives and to embrace their future role in society as responsible and dependable young men. The mission of The Lost Boys project is to restore the hope that has been lost among boys and young men in Britain today.
Please complete and submit the Call for Evidence form on this page.