Reeves argues men need support to close gender gap

75% of suicides are men: the ignored male crisis

What do we do with boys who fail more in school, live nearly four years less, and make up 96% of prisons? Asking this aloud is enough to get labeled. This discomfort underpins Of Boys and Men, an essay by British economist Richard V. Reeves, published in Spain by Deusto. It defends a deliberately uncomfortable thesis: without addressing growing young male distress, real equality is unattainable.

Reeves is not a barroom agitator. A researcher at the Brookings Institution and president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, he dedicates the book to his three sons. He admits most friends advised against writing it, warning of fruta damage. His vvife, a convinced feminist, pushed him to proceed. "Discussing men's needs today is automatically considered reactionary," he summarizes.

The data behind male distress

The figures cited are hard to dispute. 75% of those who commit suicide are men, a gap that widens among children. Male life expectancy is nearly four years lower than female. 83% of the homeless are men, rising to 96% among inmates. Additionally, men drink more alcohol, use more drugs, fail more in education, and struggle more with the transition from work to retirement.

Reeves concludes this isn't an internet forum invention or a journalist's obsession with masculinity crises. The data, he argues, exists in education, labor markets, and family life, depicting many men struggling to fit into an obsolete role.

British Conservative politician Nick Fletcher took this material to the BBC program Woman's Hour, proposing a Ministry for Men. The idea was met with general mockery: "How about a ministry for whites, heterosenshetero, or the upper classes?" joked journalist Martha Gill in The Guardian. In The Times, Robert Crampton added that ugly people deserve a ministry more than men. With such ridicule, the issue sank into the sens wars gutter.

Is feminism the cause?

Here, two things must be separated. Reeves accepts some male disadvantages result from necessary rebalancing: he isn't concerned by fewer men on boards or in parliaments. The problem appears when looking at education or suicide stats, especially when diagnosis becomes a victimhood narrative. "The idea that we are victims of the feminist movement is gaining traction, and that is a grave error," he warns.

His nuance on the wage gap is widely cited: he wants it closed, but from above. "I want the gap between men and women to narrow because women's wages rise, not because men's stagnate," he states. He finishes with a phrase summarizing the book: equality cannot be reached by holding boys back.

Positive discrimination: the controversial proposal

This leads to the most contentious part: applying some form of positive discrimination for men in various societal areas to fix their problems. More aggressive proposals circulate, like granting extra points in university entrance exams (selectividad) to males due to later intellectual maturation and greater female consistency at early ages. Defenders justify this by efficiency, not justice.

Institutional movements underway

The idea isn't floating in a vacuum. Norway launched a state commission to address men's roles in family, education, work, leisure, health, violence, integration, and aging. In Washington, a bill was introduced to create a first commission on boys and men. The UN included the #HeForShe campaign in its women's summits, appealing to the male role in the battle for equality. In Spain, the Ministry of Equality presented an initiative last week.

Equality of rights or outcomes?

Another analytical stream argues the original error was focusing on sens wars rather than harmful behaviors, which belong to neither sens: humiliation, abuse, narcissism. From this view, the conflict is behavioral, not gendered, and the official narrative served to target one group while ignoring others.

Some go further, arguing equality begins and ends with legal rights, without pursuing 50% quotas everywhere.

Amidst this, a datum slips into any education conversation: the suspicion, expressed without conclusive proof, that teachers tend to grade female students higher, regardless of sens, to avoid appearing sens.

While deciding if a Ministry for Men is needed—Monty Python patented one for Silly Walks over fifty years ago—boys continue getting worse grades, drinking more, and dying sooner. No ministry fixes that. But at least it would give something to talk about on the radio.