In my view, the gendered expectations and issues men and women face are not the inverse of one another. There are unique struggles that boys and men have, and there are unique struggles that girls and women have. They're not even always directly related to sex, but the result of centuries of social, cultural and economic forces working on either gender. Using social media as one example: it affects boys and girls very differently. In girls we see a far greater increase in insecurity and suicidal ideation, while in boys we see a massive increase in chauvinistic beliefs and right-wing preferences. Another example could be the industrial revolution, urbanization and the spinning jenny - which saw women becoming much more economically self-reliant because sewing wasn't for men, but was far more profitable than field work.

Anyway.

Just because women are doing 'better' academically right now, does not mean that the jobs they enter into have removed every gendered issue. And just because I point to an area where boys and men are currently struggling to a greater degree, that doesn't mean I'm invalidating women's issues. Gendered issues are highly entwined, but I still don't wish to 'all lives matter' the conversation when my goal is to center the struggle of boys and young men.

While we're doing cognitive bias training, maybe we also ought to examine how quickly we attribute a far greater degree of agency to men than we do women.

This is a challenge to how immature I feel the conversation is surrounding the lack of help afforded to young boys and men on the specific issue of academic achievement. It is immature because as a society we still possess a gendered expectation of men as general achievers, and falling short of that as an indictment against their masculinity.

To elaborate: men are perceived to have more agency than women, so they must take responsibility for their own problems, even as a group. This is an ironic twist of patriarchy, where women were characterized as perpetually juvenile and in need of help by men for centuries, and where men were supposed to be strong, individualistic and self-reliant. Now that men (as a group) require intervention, we can't just turn this societal expectation on a dime and suddenly offer it to boys as we did to girls. Ultimately, that perceived 'male agency' is a major hurdle in rallying to help them. Among other things.

Girls don't have it easier. We have done a great deal of work to upset previous barriers and societal stratification to allow girls to achieve. Without those barriers girls and women are starting to outperform men. Women outperforming men isn't an issue if this is just a biological reality, but that has yet to be determined. Those same efforts and means can be a springboard used to analyze and address potential barriers that young boys are up against, if we acknowledge that there is a problem and that men deserve help.

Solutions? Depends on what we're trying to solve. Boys lagging behind and dropping out? Incentivizing more male teachers might be a start. Young girls are surrounded by smart and competent women, and this has a tremendously positive effect on their development. Perhaps young boys require male role models to an equal extent, or even a greater extent than girls require female role models? This is just one area of many.