Many boys and men in America are doing worse than girls and women in education while struggling with a culture that struggles to define what masculinity is in the 21st century. Is this a problem? Richard Reeves thinks so which is why he started the American Institute for Boys and Men. Listen as Reeves discusses the state of boys and men and what might be done about it with EconTalk's Russ Roberts.
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Today is August 7, 2024, and my guest is Richard Reeves.
He's the president and founder of the American Institute for Boys and Men, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
His most recent book is of boys and why the Modern Male is struggling, why it matters, and what to do about it.
Today we're going to talk about boys and men and the challenges they're facing in this moment.
Richard, welcome to Econ TALK.
Thank you for having me on, Russ.
I'm really looking forward to this.
Now, you highlight three challenges that face men and sometimes boys in education, in the workplace, in the family.
I like to go through those one at a time, and it's reasonable.
Let's start with education.
When it's boys mostly, what's the crisis in boys and young men's education?
To everybody's surprise, there's a very large gender gap in education now in every advanced economy.
I'll talk mostly about the US, but with boys and men behind, obviously, we used to think about gender gaps that go the other way, and for a long time it was that way.
But boys and men are behind girls and women throughout the education system and falling further and further behind.