On International Women's Day, we need to think about disenchanted young men

Today is International Women’s Day, which has become a permanent fixture in the calendar, in this country and around the world; an occasion on which to both celebrate female achievement and to promote the virtues of shattering glass ceilings wherever they are perceived to still exist.

As someone who has forged a successful career in business, I know how tough it can be to make it as a woman. In my own case, that was compounded by the serious health problems I encountered when my debilitating struggle with endometriosis forced me to give up my job in the City of London and return north, taking my career on a different but ultimately rewarding trajectory.

It is an experience which has profoundly shaped me in my personal and professional life and left me with a burning determination to do more to help the countless women afflicted by such conditions, which not only impact physical and mental health but are a huge economic issue.

Boys tend to experience more behavioural issues and leave education with significantly worse prospects than girls (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

Don’t You Forget About Me

So, given my own background, and as another International Women’s Day is upon us, I feel more than qualified to opine on not only what it takes to succeed as a woman but also where our attentions should now be focused.

However, as I write this to the background strains of Simple Minds’ Don’t You Forget About Me – one of so many hits which resonated deeply with me as a working-class youngster and formed part of my own personal soundtrack growing up amid the social and economic turmoil of the 1970s and 80s – I’m prompted to consider just who it is that we are at risk of forgetting.

Because here’s the rub: it is perhaps not the fortunes of young women we should be fixated on today. It’s overwhelmingly those of boys and young men.

On just about any metric you care to measure, it is the young males of the Western world who are underperforming, who are worse off emotionally and, in too many cases, whose needs are being ignored, leading to a toxic cycle of disenchantment and despair.

Stark gender disparity

Let’s address the evidence before us. Which gender leaves education with significantly worse outcomes and prospects? Which does worse when it comes to behavioural issues in childhood, in many cases ultimately spiralling into lifestyles beset by serious crime? And which, when it comes to mental wellbeing, fares by far the worst when it comes to the toll of lives lost to suicide?

The answer in every case is of course males. Take the statistics on younger people not in education, employment or training. Already an endemic problem in many UK communities, it has only become worse since the pandemic, but the gender disparity is stark, with a 40 per cent post-Covid rise among males, compared to just seven per cent among females. Meanwhile, boys are twice as likely as girls to face expulsion from school.

The list of statistics goes on and on. And it is a universal phenomenon, by no means confined to the UK and our nearest neighbours. A report from the World Bank in 2022 found that in every region of the world, and in almost every country, boys were faring worse than girls educationally, with all the knock-on effects that has for societies.

A sad, resigned shrug

In circumstances where those numbers were reversed, with girls and young women beset by a tidal wave of imbalance in their prospects and life chances, an emergency would undoubtedly be declared, taskforces convened and the whole might of governments and their associated agencies brought to bear to fix it.

As it is, the travails of boys and young men elicit, at most, a sad but resigned shrug. But the imbalance is now so stark, prolonged and ingrained that it merits the full attention of government.

The reality is that it is not just the current generation of young males who are being failed, and in too many cases abandoned. We are now deep into a multigenerational cycle which has seen too many boys and men left behind.

The Centre for Social Justice recently launched a research project, called “Lost Boys”, aimed at understanding what lies at the root of male disenchantment. The Lost Boys syndrome was already evident by the late 1970s as males in communities like the one I grew up in saw their chances of employment, opportunity and simple dignity stripped away.

Full equality of opportunity

Of course, women have historically been discriminated against and denied opportunity. That has, rightly, been addressed over many decades. And while no one should let down their guard, it is hard to argue that in this country and most Western nations, there is not now full equality of opportunity, not only in law, but in practice.

But the consequences of deep-seated male disenchantment are everywhere, socially, economically and politically. Donald Trump sought, with evident success, to tap into that well of masculine despondency when he targeted young men in the recent US election.

Closer to home, our own politicians of all parties would do well to pay attention to that dynamic. That is because fixing the issue will not just bring about renewed hope for those boys and young men who have been left behind – it will also deliver much wider gains in terms of the economy, health, crime rates and family cohesion. When we have a society where young men are active, productive, employed and happy, everyone will benefit, male and female.

So, this International Women’s Day, my plea is to look on it not as a chance to fight old battles but to look forward with hope in the knowledge that true equality means bringing opportunity to everyone. Let’s not forget the Lost Boys.

Dr Marie Macklin CBE is a leading Scottish businesswoman and investor