In recent decades, while the spotlight has rightly illuminated the struggles and successes of women, a quieter, more troubling crisis has emerged concerning the modern male. Richard Reeves, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of Of Boys and Men, argues that gender inequality is not a zero-sum game, and the challenges facing boys and men deserve serious, non-political attention. Reeves’s work provides a compelling, data-driven explanation for what he terms the “male malaise,” spanning education, the economy, and family life.
The Startling Gender Flip in Education 🎓
Perhaps the most dramatic shift in modern society is the “gender flip” in education. Reeves points out that on nearly every metric, in every advanced economy, girls are leaving boys “way behind,” and women are outpacing men.
For decades, the focus was correctly placed on achieving gender parity. However, nobody anticipated that women would not just catch up but would “blow right past” men, resulting in a new form of educational inequality.

• The Data: In the U.S., the average girl is nearly a grade level ahead of the average boy in English. In the top 10% of GPA scorers, two-thirds are girls. Conversely, at the bottom of the academic ladder, two-thirds of those struggling are boys.
• College Gap: The gender gap in college enrollment and completion is now wider than it was in 1972—the year Title IX was passed—but in favor of women.
  Reeves attributes a significant portion of this disparity to a fundamental difference in biological timing: the developmental gap. The prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for executive functions like planning, impulse control, and maintaining a high GPA—develops an average of one to two years earlier in girls than in boys. An education system structured around turning in homework, staying on task, and planning for the future unintentionally rewards the group whose brains mature faster in these areas.
  Policy Recommendations for Schools
  To address this structural disadvantage, Reeves proposes three key interventions:
• Redshirting Boys: He suggests encouraging boys to start school a year later than girls, making this the default in many school districts. This would align them developmentally with their female peers.
• Recruiting Male Teachers: The teaching profession has become steadily more female, with only 24% of K-12 teachers being male—a number that continues to fall. An intentional effort is needed to recruit more men into teaching to provide male role models and diversify the school environment’s ethos.
• Investing in Vocational Education: The U.S. has heavily favored a single academic route to success. Reeves argues that significant investment in apprenticeships and technical high schools is crucial, as this is an area where boys and men, on average, tend to see better results.
  Economic Shifts and the “HEEL” Economy 💼
  While highly educated men at the top of the economic ladder may not see a crisis, Reeves emphasizes that the reality for working-class men is dramatically different.
  The economic fortunes of men have turned downwards across four crucial dimensions since 1979:
• Wages: Most men today earn less than most men did in 1979.
• Employment: The labor force participation rate for prime-age men has dropped by 8 percentage points, meaning millions of men are not working.
• Occupational Stature: More men are working in lower-status employment areas compared to the past.
• Skill Acquisition: Men are acquiring fewer of the skills and education needed to thrive in the modern labor market.
  Crucially, Reeves identifies a mismatch between the job market’s future and the male workforce. While efforts abound to get women into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), the fastest-growing job sectors are what he calls HEEL jobs: Health, Education, Administration, and Literacy.
• Gender Segregation: Health and education are massive, growing sectors. For every one job created in STEM between now and 2030, Reeves estimates three will be created in HEEL fields.
• The Decline: Only 24% of workers in the HEEL sector are male, and that number is falling. For instance, the percentage of male psychologists under the age of 30 is only 5%, pointing toward these essential professions becoming almost entirely female.
  Reeves highlights the lack of any significant societal effort to encourage men into these future-oriented, caring professions, leaving them disadvantaged in a rapidly changing economy.
  The “Dad Deficit” and Family Crisis 👨‍👩‍👦
  The struggles of men in education and work feed directly into a crisis in family life, which Reeves labels the “dad deficit”.
• Fatherlessness: When parents separate, fathers are far more likely to lose contact. Alarmingly, one in three children whose parents split up does not see their father at all after a few years.
• The Obsolete Model: As women’s economic power and independence have grown—a liberation that Reeves calls “the greatest in human history”—they are choosing whether to be with a man, not being forced to. This poses a sharp question about “what fathers are for.” Men are still often held to the obsolete model of the breadwinner father, a role that is impossible or undesirable for many.
• Intergenerational Cost: The children who suffer most from a lack of father presence are boys. When fathers are struggling and disengaged, their sons are the ones most likely to struggle themselves in education and the labor market, making male disadvantage intergenerational.
  The Crisis of Purpose and Health 🩸
  The cumulative effect of these struggles—in schools, in the workplace, and at home—is a profound malaise that manifests in devastating health consequences.
  Reeves points to the soaring rates of “deaths of despair” (suicide, overdose, or alcohol-related deaths), which are three times higher among men than among women.
• Loss of Purpose: This health crisis is rooted in a fundamental loss of purpose. Research into the last words of men who committed or attempted suicide often revealed words like “worthless” and “useless”.
• Isolation: The opioid epidemic, which is a much bigger problem for men, serves as a tragic illustration. Death rates are higher in part because the users are isolated and on their own, reflecting a loss of status in the labor market and a loss of role in the family.
  Reeves concludes that society has a collective, cultural responsibility to help boys and men adjust to this new world. Unless the problems of male inequality are taken seriously and addressed with intentional, evidence-based policy changes, the vicious cycle of struggle will continue to worsen.

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