https://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1igqonx/boys_education_and_feminism/
created by Professional-Salt-31 on 03/02/2025 at 14:46 UTC
89 upvotes, 18 top-level comments (showing 18)
I’ve always considered myself a feminist, but I never really cared for the labels. Over the years, though, I find myself agreeing less and less with modern feminism. I guess that means I’m not as much of a feminist as I was a couple of decades ago.
As a dad to a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl, I can’t help but notice the differences in how society and schools treat them. There’s solid evidence that boys, on average, are falling behind girls in school, especially in reading and writing. This isn’t just a one-off thing—it’s happening across Western countries, including Canada (where push for feminism and advancement of girls are the highest - population wise).
Whenever I bring this up, I get the usual responses:
I get that these are factors, but my question is—why now? The education system hasn’t drastically changed in the last 150 years, yet boys used to perform just fine. What’s different today?
Has feminism, even unintentionally, contributed to this by focusing on getting girls ahead while overlooking boys?
What do you think?
Comment by toblotron at 03/02/2025 at 15:50 UTC
40 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Boys get lower grades for the same quality of work
Interesting post: https://www.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/cdl020/the%5C_education%5C_gap%5C_boys%5C_earn%5C_lower%5C_grades%5C_for%5C_the/[1][2]
Comment by _WutzInAName_ at 03/02/2025 at 16:23 UTC
25 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Anti-male and pro-female biases in education have been demonstrated over and over, from female-only scholarships to entrenched discrimination against boys in grading.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09645292.2023.2252620
“Contrary to the general belief that teachers may be biased against female students (Ceci et al. Citation2014; Tiedemann Citation2000), most of the studies have found that the gender gap is against male students. Teachers’ pro-female bias has been documented in several countries and educational contexts, including Czech Republic (Protivínský and Münich Citation2018), France (Terrier Citation2020), Israel (Lavy Citation2008; Lavy and Sand Citation2018), Italy (Casula and Liberto Citation2017), Norway (Falch and Naper Citation2013), and the United States (Cornwell, Mustard, and Parys Citation2013)…”
Comment by Keokuk84 at 03/02/2025 at 15:00 UTC
20 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Look into Men on Strike by Dr. Helen Smith and The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers.
Comment by stax496 at 03/02/2025 at 15:10 UTC
13 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Profession choices do not exist in a vacuum.
When leftist/feminist professional standards dictate forms of teaching that fail to recognise boy's/men's inherent nature, they introduce discriminatory harms.
Men don't want to pass on the same kind they experienced during their own school years by becoming teachers.
Comment by tronaldump0106 at 03/02/2025 at 16:28 UTC
15 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Yup your right. Education system has been completely hijacked by feminists and is a major reason boys have so many problems today. I'm also the father of a boy and a girl. Girl has all the advantages and my son is rotting.
Comment by AdamChap at 03/02/2025 at 17:37 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Do boys/girls learn different, are brain wired differently?
Yes, the move away from exams towards coursework based grading was designed for girls.
Comment by marchingrunjump at 03/02/2025 at 16:46 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I think there’s a massive element of learned helplessness[1].
1: https://youtu.be/gFmFOmprTt0?si=DCEHqAUA6l6ZSe_x
If a proportion of boys systematically get’s a feedback of “meh” or “pooh” throughout a decade pf primary achool, there’s a good probability that it’ll show up statistically.
It seems like men gravitate towards subjects where evaluation criteria are more objective - ie hard subjects - and away from subject where evaluations are subjective - ie soft subjects.
Perhaps because evaluation bias plays a lesser role in hard subjects.
Comment by mrmensplights at 03/02/2025 at 17:39 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You are very correct in pointing out the central filter for these kinds of discussions is "why now?". A lot of feminists/misandrists will try hard to find biological and gender psychology explanations because that means no culture is at fault. I don't shy away from such explanations on principal, but it's clear this is a relatively *new* thing and that should weed out such quick answers that let people wash their hands responsibility.
I agree public schools have been retooled for girls success at the expense of boys. That includes teaching methods that favor girls, curriculums that favor girls, learning methods being adopted that suit girls more, and a lack of male teachers and men in general being involved in the day to day running of the schools leading to extra-curriculars, clubs, and other opportunities being feminized.
Beyond being tuned for the success of girls, and having a culture that favors girls, there is also direct anti-male sentiment in schools as well. Studies that female teachers have just been shown to be harder on boys. Giving worse grades for equal work and having a stronger negative and lasting reaction to behavioral and academic issues if the student is male.
Schools now exist within a wider culture that is focused on prioritizing girls over boys. There are many special community programs focused on programming, science, and mathematics specifically for girls that work with schools to get students involved.
So, boys are treated more harshly in schools while have to work harder for the same grades, in an environment and culture that doesn't their success important or noteworthy, with relatively few special programs or opportunities that include them. It's really not hard to see why boys would fall behind on that basis alone.
Comment by Few-Procedure-268 at 03/02/2025 at 15:35 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Great post. I tend to think the first two points you make are key.
We expect literacy earlier and it's the key that unlocks education more broadly. We also expect everyone to be highly educated and opportunities to make a good living without education have declined (blue collar mostly, but even entry level white collar).
If boys on average have less success at early childhood literacy (brain dev) it puts them behind and turns them off reading and education. It tells them that education isn't for them, and the lack of male teachers reinforces it.
I think the global nature of the phenomenon suggests it's not particular policies causing the disparities, but more a shift in modern expectations for education combined with full access for girls. But I think we've been slow to care and adapt to mitigate the problem because privileged boys and men still run the world so people dismiss the problems of most boys and men.
Comment by Lets_Remain_Logical at 03/02/2025 at 18:03 UTC*
5 upvotes, 1 direct replies
It's time to revisit the label. Happy désillusion.
Boys' brain develop around 2 years later that girls' brain for the simple reason that girls go into puberty later.
Now we are punishing boys because of biology.
I have one relieve point: all this people hostile against men will realize at some moment how destructive this was to society! It will be too late but: no society is satisfied and happy if a complementary half is bullied!
Comment by Imissyourgirlfriend2 at 03/02/2025 at 18:18 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
You may find this book interesting
Comment by Mumulenka at 03/02/2025 at 18:55 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I am pro-feminist. But feminism is NOT what this 3rd wave of misandry is about.
From equal rights, we got to "special treatment", "you exist = you rape" and other abhorrent modus operandi.
Comment by Agent_Green4573061 at 03/02/2025 at 19:07 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This makes me sad ngl
Comment by BalloonPilotDude at 03/02/2025 at 19:04 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Why now? That’s probably a confluence of things.
1. Men’s issues are getting more attention and traction both positive and negative. These problems have been likely in process for a long time.
2. The proportion of male to female teachers has tilted badly in recent years, not that it hasn’t been since the 70s but it seems accelerated. I counted the other day, including administration there are only six males in the school to 85 females at my kids school.
3. Political talking points. Whether you agree or not this has become a political issue and we did just have an election in the US.
4. Feminism has become something of a brainwashing / social currency among teachers. We have a very good teacher friend who entered the system middle of the road but over the course of many years has been dragged into a full blown far-left hole by her environment. Everything is now either the fault of Donald Trump, MAGA people or the patriarchy. She’s used feminist and ‘woke’ language to describe her students, she’s talked about how bad men in general are, she uses terms like ‘mediocre white boy syndrome’, she uses her birthing their children as a trump card and ‘gotcha’ for any and all arguments, criticism or counterpoints against her husband. And she’s very, very typical of a current teacher. We are in a deep red state and she’s in a very conservative school district.
5. And probably many more things..
Comment by maxhrlw at 03/02/2025 at 19:31 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The feminist response to "why now?" would be that the system has always been the same, but girls are only just now being allowed to compete on an even footing. Or something along those lines.
It's impossible to argue this stuff from an ideological standpoint, and it's also pretty pointless in my mind. Looking at the here and now, boys are struggling, why do we continue to not give this the attention it deserves, feminism is supposed to be about equality isn't it?
Comment by Excellent_You5494 at 03/02/2025 at 19:48 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It was a crisis before, it's been a crisis since the 70s/80s.
Multiple books have been written, and they're actively suppressed by feminist and women's lobbies.
For example:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=hj719mKBIB8&si=lC2ZnSvQRIPPR1aY
This was written in the 80s/90s, published in the 90s, and updated in the 2000s.
Comment by JoryATL at 03/02/2025 at 20:56 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Get your kid in a church school with trad values
Comment by Ok-Yogurtcloset7394 at 03/02/2025 at 21:07 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The most disgusting thing is the way thats being celebrated. Feminists will be like: "Hell yeah, women are outperforming men at school and education!" and in reality everyones performance in school is declining but boys are struggling more severely than women do.