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reach the expected level in reading than girls’. And at GCSE in 2016, 71 per cent of female entries achieved at least a C grade compared to 62 per cent of male entries. Diane Abbott MP suggests that, ‘British society has given in to a fatalism about outcomes for boys — the “they’re just like that” syndrome’. Perhaps there is a natural difference between boys’ and girls’ ability to handle education, but while it is an acceptable social norm for boys to be getting worse grades, boys will get worse grades. It seems that men are caught between, on one hand, an unrealistic expectation of peak masculinity, and on the other, a stigma that expects men to underperform. This leads to a diminished sense of self-worth. Would it be beneficial to do away with the term masculinity altogether? Janet Hyde of the University of Wisconsin-Madison offers a gender- similarities hypothesis, which suggests that males and females are similar on most psychological variables. She claims that 78 per cent of gender differences that she found were small or close to zero. While this experiment is by no means exhaustive – and, of course, biological trends exist that distinguish men from women, like the different levels of different hormones produced in the different sexes – the study does suggest that genders are more similar than generally believed. Of course, there is nothing wrong with masculinity itself (unlike its most extreme stereotype). However, removing unfounded preconceptions around gender is an appropriate social challenge and will prove to be hugely beneficial for all. If it does not matter how masculine or feminine you are, maybe these suicide numbers would drop and perhaps we would see a shift towards gender equality. With men
It seems men are caught between, on one hand, an unrealistic expectation of peak masculinity, and, on the other, a stigma which expects men to underperform
being macho, many men have an underlying force to belong and identify that is linked to productivity. When these needs are not met, men feel inadequate. To me, however, it seems unlikely that this feeling of failed productivity stems solely from not providing an outlet for biological differences between the sexes. Instead, I believe it at least partially arises as a reaction to the tapering off from centuries of male social dominance. Georgia Greaves of JAGS gave a talk at the Equality Society on ‘The Effect of Gender Stereotypes on Masculinity’. She noted that she found herself instinctively hiding behind a male friend when a ball flew towards her as she watched a sports match. In a similar manner, she questioned whether this is a result of a biological difference between the sexes or of cultural influence, which is embedded through advertising and social tradition. Ironically, another problem for men lies in the way that male failure has become normalised. In education, there is a gulf between male and female performance. The political journalist Isabel Hardman comments that, ‘Girls seem to glide through primary school, while boys trudge. Seven-year-old boys are seven per cent less likely to
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