Economics

Are Men Done? They Are Failing at School, Work, and Life.

Richard V. Reeves documents terrible trends and suggests solutions that don't come at the expense of women.

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Over the past 50 years, boys and men have lost ground at school and work and they're living shorter lives. They're less likely than women to graduate from high school and college or to earn advanced degrees. They're dropping out of the labor force in record numbers and account for two-thirds of so-called deaths of despair stemming from suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses..

The Brookings Institution scholar Richard V. Reeves documents these and other, equally dark developments in Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What To Do About It. He analyzes the structural factors exacerbating these trends—such as the changing nature of work in a postindustrial economy—and suggests solutions that don't come at the expense of women.

Reeves was our guest at the Reason Speakeasy, a monthly, unscripted conversation in New York City with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an era of conformity and groupthink.

Produced by Nick Gillespie and Adam Czarnecki; Edited by Adam Czarnecki and Justin Zuckerman

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