Narrator: A six-foot-five Black man named Dwight works as a car salesman. To make his white customers feel more at ease, he wears a pair of glasses. The lenses are clear; he doesn't need them to see. He wears them so that others might see him differently—as less of a threat. This small, daily calculation is just one of the countless invisible burdens carried by men in the modern world. It’s a world where boys are falling behind in school, men are disappearing from the workforce, and fathers are losing their traditional role in the family. These are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a deep and growing malaise. In his book, Of Boys and Men, author Richard V. Reeves provides a data-rich, compassionate, and unflinching look at why the modern male is struggling, why it matters for everyone, and what we can do about it.

Narrator: The data reveals a startling reversal of historical trends: girls and women are now surging ahead of boys and men in education. This isn't a minor gap; it's a chasm. For every 100 bachelor's degrees awarded to women, only 74 are awarded to men. This disparity begins early, with boys lagging in literacy and high school graduation rates. Reeves argues this is partly due to developmental biology; the prefrontal cortex, which governs impulse control and planning, develops more slowly in boys, making the structured, language-heavy environment of modern schools a greater challenge for them.

This educational gap has profound consequences for the labor market. While high-profile debates often focus on the gender pay gap at the top, a different story is unfolding for the majority of men. Since 1979, the weekly earnings for a typical man with only a high school diploma have fallen by 14% in real terms. Male-dominated industries like manufacturing have been decimated by automation and globalization, while new job growth is concentrated in "HEAL" fields—health, education, administration, and literacy—which are overwhelmingly female.

The failure to address this is starkly illustrated by well-intentioned social policies. The Kalamazoo Promise, a celebrated program in Michigan offering free college tuition, was found to have a significant positive impact on college completion rates for women, but no benefit for men. This pattern repeats across various interventions, from mentoring programs to wage subsidies, suggesting a fundamental disconnect between the policies we design and the problems men face.

Narrator: For centuries, the primary role of a father was clear: to be the provider. This role, Reeves explains, was the cultural glue that bound men to their families and communities. However, the economic empowerment of women—a monumental achievement for equality—has dismantled this traditional model. Today, women are the main breadwinners in 41% of U.S. households, and marriage is no longer an economic necessity for them.

Yet, our cultural script for fatherhood hasn't caught up. We are stuck with an obsolete model, creating what Reeves calls a "dad deficit." Men are increasingly unable to fulfill the breadwinner role but have not yet stepped into a new one. This dislocation is powerfully captured in Arthur Miller’s classic play, Death of a Salesman. Willy Loman, the aging salesman, defines his entire worth by his ability to provide. When he can no longer do so, his identity collapses, leading to his tragic end. His story is a cultural touchstone for the desolation that comes from a life built solely around the provider role. This leaves many modern men feeling adrift, disconnected from their families, and unsure of their purpose.

Narrator: The challenges facing men are not uniform; they are compounded by race and class. Black boys and men, Reeves argues, face a "double disadvantage" from the intersection of racism and sexism. They are confronted with a pervasive "threat stereotype," where they are automatically perceived as dangerous. The author's godson, Dwight, wearing non-prescription glasses to appear less threatening is a poignant example of this. This stereotype has devastating real-world consequences, from disproportionate rates of incarceration to discrimination in the job market. Research by Raj Chetty shows a staggering mobility gap: Black men raised in poor families are far less likely to climb the economic ladder than white men, a disparity not seen between Black and white women.

For working-class men, especially white men without a college degree, the crisis manifests as "deaths of despair." They account for the vast majority of deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol-related liver disease. These are not just individual tragedies but the result of a collective loss of economic standing, community connection, and purpose. In many poor communities, women have come to see men as unreliable partners and potential economic burdens, choosing to raise children alone. This fractures family structures and perpetuates a cycle of disadvantage for the next generation of boys.

Narrator: The problems of boys and men have become a political football, trapped in a stalemate between the Left and the Right. Reeves argues that the political Left suffers from a form of "progressive blindness." First, it tends to pathologize masculinity, labeling any undesirable male behavior as "toxic masculinity." This was seen after an incident at a high school where a boy created a list ranking female students by attractiveness. The event was immediately framed as a symptom of a toxic culture, a label so broad it alienates more than it helps.

Second, progressives often blame men for their own struggles, an individualistic approach they rarely apply to other disadvantaged groups. Third, there is a deep reluctance to acknowledge any biological basis for sex differences, attributing everything to social construction. Finally, the Left often views gender inequality as a one-way street, running only against women. This is institutionalized in measures like the White House's National Strategy on Gender Equity and Equality, which in its 42 pages, never once mentions a problem faced by boys or men.

Narrator: While the Left is often in denial, the political Right is all too eager to exploit male discontent for political gain. Conservative figures like Senator Josh Hawley frame men's struggles not as a complex societal issue, but as a direct "attack on men" by the Left. In a 2021 speech, Hawley claimed that the Left wants to "define traditional masculinity as toxic" and that this assault is causing men to withdraw into "idleness and pornography and video games."

This rhetoric taps into a real sense of grievance but offers no viable solutions for the future. Instead, the Right’s agenda is rooted in nostalgia, promising a return to a past where men were providers and women were carers. This approach overemphasizes biology to justify rigid gender roles and ignores the irreversible economic and social shifts of the last half-century. It beguiles men with the promise of restoring an old world rather than helping them navigate the new one, fueling anger without providing a path forward.

Narrator: Reeves insists that helping men does not mean turning back the clock on women's progress. Instead, it requires a new, pro-social agenda for men that is also pro-woman and pro-family. He proposes bold, evidence-based solutions across the three crisis domains.

In education, he advocates to "redshirt the boys"—that is, to start them in school a year later than girls. This would give their developing brains an extra year to mature, aligning their developmental stage with the demands of school. Evidence from places that have tried this shows dramatic reductions in hyperactivity and significant gains in test scores for boys.

For fatherhood, the goal is to reinvent it as an independent social institution, where a man's relationship with his children is not contingent on his relationship with their mother. This means policies like equal and independent parental leave and a modernized child support system that fosters, rather than severs, the connection between fathers and their children. Ultimately, the book argues for a future where men are not just better off, but are also better husbands, fathers, and citizens.

Narrator: The single most important takeaway from Of Boys and Men is that addressing the structural problems facing boys and men is not an attack on women or a retreat from feminism; it is the necessary next step toward a society of genuine gender equality. The goal is not to restore a patriarchal past but to build a more equitable future where both sexes can flourish.

The book leaves us with a critical challenge: can we move beyond the toxic political stalemate and have an honest, compassionate conversation about the struggles of boys and men? Resisting women's progress is a dead end. The real task is to help men adapt to a world of equality, creating new roles and new sources of meaning that work for them, for women, and for the children they raise together.