Ep 5: Are Boys Being Left Behind?

Raising Parents with Emily Oster

The Free Press

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.5 • 660 Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Across the board in most advanced countries, girls and women are outpacing boys and men. Nowhere is this more stark than in education. When Title IX was passed in the U.S., the share of students enrolled in a bachelor’s degree program was about two-thirds men and one-third women. Just 50 years later, the numbers have reversed: Bachelor’s enrollment is now 58 percent women and 42 percent men. So, not only is the gender inequality we see in college today wider than it was 50 years ago, it’s the other way around, with men on the bottom. The difference in master’s degrees is even more striking. In the 1970s, women earned only 11 percent of them. Today, women earn over 60 percent of master’s degrees. Women are awarded 53 percent of PhDs, and they make up the majority of law students. These disparities also continue after school ends. Young men are out of the labor force at an unprecedented rate. Nearly half (47 percent) of prime-age men not in the workforce cite obsolete skills, lack of education, or poor work history as barriers to employment. And most American men earn less today (adjusted for inflation) than most men did in 1979. Today: Are boys and men falling behind? Why are some experts so worried about this, and what is at stake for the economy, our society, our families, and the future of boys everywhere? *** Resources from the episode: Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It (Amazon) by Richard Reeves Hanna Rosin The End of Men: And the Rise of Women (Amazon) by Hanna Rosin Erica Komisar “Men are lost. Here’s a map out of the wilderness” by Christine Emba American Institute for Boys and Men

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Emily here, and you're listening to Raising Parents, my new podcast in partnership with
0:06.0	the free press, where we interrogate all of the big and pressing and confusing questions facing
0:11.6	parents today. Before we get to the show, I'm so excited to tell you that this season is in partnership
0:17.3	with Airbnb. If you know anything about me, you know how much I love Airbnb.
0:22.4	I think I'm currently holding like six Airbnb reservations in my account.
0:27.4	Airbnb has provided incredible experiences for me, my family, and our friends across the
0:33.0	country and the world time and time again.
0:36.3	More on that and how you too can use Airbnb on your next family trip later in the episode.
0:42.0	For now, on to the show.
0:48.4	So my name's Rachel Glock.
0:50.4	I currently teach kindergarten.
0:52.8	I have also taught first and second grade in the 20 years that I've
0:56.6	been teaching. So I'm Lauren Hanken and I have taught sixth, seventh, and eighth grade English. I've had
1:02.6	specific parents choose to keep their boys back for another year of kindergarten or another year of pre-K.
1:09.1	Sometimes it has to do with academics, but often it has to do with
1:12.9	social emotional and how they handle their peers. Behaviorally, the boys tend to take up more space
1:20.0	than the girls. Perhaps that's because teaching boys is different and the modalities and the energy
1:25.2	and things like that. But I think sometimes the girls get left behind because we spend so much focus trying to get the
1:32.2	boys to focus so at the age I work with them right now from 18 months to four-year-olds
1:39.4	boys they are pretty active they do tend to need a little more physical outlet. They do need to move a little bit more. And girls are a little more happy to sit in color or to read a book. So I think that there's a difference in the level of self-control or awareness, impulsivity with boys than with girls.
2:02.5	So oftentimes we'll have more blurting out with boys.
2:06.2	When I taught fourth grade, they'd be great for good 30 minutes.
	...

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