Don't excommunicate me from the sisterhood, but men can be victims of the patriarchy too – Susan Dalgety

Prince Edward’s remark that men weren’t doing a good job in the world lumped them all together, but the truth is more complex

HRH Prince Edward, or the Duke of Edinburgh to give him his Sunday title, is not known for making controversial statements. Indeed, apart from a youthful dalliance in TV production, the late Queen’s youngest son is an unremarkable figure. He’s generally considered hard-working but dull. However, in a speech in South Africa earlier this week, he rather surprisingly tipped his toe into the choppy waters of sexual politics.

Speaking at an event in Pretoria on Monday night, where he announced enhanced scientific collaboration between South Africa and the UK, he castigated his fellow man. “I know the world is not in a happy place at the moment,” he said. “If I can be quite frank, men aren’t doing a very good job at the moment. So therefore I am not particularly happy about standing up here and speaking [as a man]. But I will say there is more that binds us together, more that brings us together, than separates us.”

Sources close to the Prince later tried to downplay his remarks, saying they were made against a backdrop of the conflicts raging across the world, from Gaza to Ukraine. He has a point. Putin and Hamas are exemplars of toxic masculinity. America, the birthplace of second-wave feminism, is in danger of re-electing a man who jokes about sexually assaulting women. The world is controlled by sociopathic, unreconstructed alpha males who regard violence and conflict as just another political tool. Men aren’t doing a very good job at the moment.

Incels’ hatred of women

But was the Prince right to lump all men together? Or are most men as much victims of the patriarchy as women? I suggest many are. But before I am excommunicated from the sisterhood, let me explain. Let’s start with the patriarchy, a term that many young people first encountered in last year’s box-office hit, Barbie.

CNN even compiled a simple explainer for the term, quoting renowned sociologist Allan Johnson who wrote: “Patriarchy does not refer to any man or collection of men, but to a kind of society in which men and women participate… A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centred. It is also organised around an obsession with control and involves, as one of its key aspects, the oppression of women.” And, I would argue, the oppression of the majority of men.

But how can men be crushed by other men, I hear you ask? Surely all men are oppressors? Even the weakest of the sex try to subjugate women. Incels, the movement of young men who describe themselves as "involuntarily celibate", are notorious for their hatred of women. Their misogyny may be largely online, but it is vicious in its hatred and desperate in its sense of alienation. Men commit 98 per cent of all violent sexual assaults against women and girls. There remains a pay gap between men and women, five decades after Barbara Castle introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1970.

Men still dominate in the boardroom, in the workplace, in parliaments and council chambers. Scotland’s five main political parties are all led by men – though to be fair Lorna Slater is co-leader of the Scottish Greens with Patrick Harvie. The next general election will be a stand-off between two men: Starmer and Sunak. The US elections will likely feature a punch-up between two old men: Trump and Biden. Men in control, everywhere.

Ugly, violent pornography

Yet, despite medical advances, male life expectancy is still lower than women’s. The Men’s Health Forum Scotland points out that one in four men die before the age of 65. Men are at bigger risk of getting cancer, and have a 37 per cent higher chance of dying from the disease than women. Men are far more likely to become drug addicts or homeless. And truly desperate men turn male violence against themselves – males are three times more likely to kill themselves than females.

The pandemic of ugly, violent pornography is freely available on every young boy’s smartphone. By the age of 13, a third will have viewed harmful images of violent sex, distorting their view of women and sexual relationships. And in education, boys continue to underperform compared to girls. Recent figures published by the Scottish Human Rights Commission show that 72 per cent of girls achieved one or more passes at SCQF level six, compared to only 61 per cent of boys – a gap of 11 per cent.

There is a class element to this of course, as there is in all aspects of life. Many boys growing up in Scotland’s poorer areas will leave school with few or no qualifications. Far too many secondary schools have become warehouses for teenage boys, a place to keep them off the streets until they are old enough to be released into an uncertain future.

The traditional industries that dominated the Central Belt, and where working-class men found jobs for life, have all but disappeared, to be replaced by the insecurity of the gig economy. A Deliveroo round is hardly the same preparation for adult life as a craft apprenticeship. And politicians largely shy away from talking about the plight of working-class boys, more comfortable dabbling in the politics of personal identity than a class analysis of our economy and society.

None of this detracts from the fact that men still enjoy more privilege than women. That, as Prince Edward pointed out, “men aren’t doing a very good job at the moment”. But it will be to women’s detriment as much as men’s if we ignore the lost boys in our midst. We need to smash the patriarchy for all our sakes.