One of the great things about blogging is you hear from lots of interesting people. For example, the folks over at The Boys Initiative commented on our post The End of Boys.
The Boys Initiative is a non-profit focused on promoting boys health and achievement. They have a fascinating blog - Attention Must Be Paid - that covers the wide variety of issues boys are facing.
The editor of the blog, Mark Sherman, has a great article in Psychology Today called The End of Boys. It contains the following scary stats on girls (and young women) versus boys (and young men):
For every 100:
• tenth grade girls who play videogames an hour or more a day, there are 322 tenth grade boys who do.
• girls who are suspended from high school, there are 215 boys who are suspended.
• young women who earn a bachelor's degree, there are 75 men who do.
• women ages 25-29 who have at least a bachelor's degree, there are 83 men who do.
• women ages 25-29 who have a doctoral degree, there are 80 men who do.
• females ages 15-24 who kill themselves, 586 males do.
• women ages 18-24 who are in correctional facilities, there are 1439 men who are behind bars.
The problems boys are facing is a huge societal issue. The New York Times recently pointed out how changing U.S. family structures are hurting income equality and the decline in the percentage of men who contribute time and money to raising children. Both are driven at least in part by the end of boys.
Please visit The Boys Intitiative and their blog for more information on this important topic.
Thanks so much for this post. The first New York Times story you shared (about changing family structures) is one of the saddest I've read in a long time. I'd love to hear more about how I can help and what steps I can take in my daily life to battle that kind of inequality. Thanks again - such an important read.
Posted by: Sara Nixon | July 26, 2012 at 06:06 PM