A man's worth

A M AN’S WORTH

| Jen Lexmond & Matthew Horne |

Jen Lexmond Jen is Director of www.charactercountsgroup.org, an independent centre that promotes, designs, and evaluates public policy interventions that build character.

As a social researcher and policy analyst, she has authored several major publications on social mobility, family policy, and child development and has considerable practical experience of service design and evaluation in family, parenting, and early years programmes.

Jen is a collaborator with the Point People http://thepointpeople.com.

She has worked at Nesta, the UK’s Innovation foundation, and at the liberal think tank, Demos. She is Dutch and American, and most at home in the UK. Matthew Horne Matthew is a Managing Partner of The Innovation Unit. He leads our work on Radical Efficiency – creating different, better and cheaper public services; and our work on measuring innovation results and capabilities in organisations.

He has worked with The Innovation Unit in various ways since 2003.

Matthew helped set up and lead Innovation Exchange, our flagship programme for innovators from the third sector, and the Innovation Catalyst - a programme of support to Local Authorities.

Matthew has worked for the Prime Ministers Strategy Unit, and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. He has experience as a service designer in public services - having worked for the Design Council, Participle, and DEMOS where he ran their programme on public service innovation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book could not have been produced without the help of many individuals and organisations. We would first and foremost like to thank the many young men and women who took part in the research for the project and offered up their thoughts, opinions, hopes and fears to us. Thank you also to the members of the Older People’s Voice who spoke to us so openly about their lives and the change they’ve witnessed over the years.

Many thanks to all of the participants in the field work, including the members of the Older People’s Voice that took part, and the young men and woman at the youth centre. Thanks also to the professionals who supported us to coordinate field work. Many thanks to those of the Demos family who helped to get this book to publication, and particular thanks to Richard Reeves for intellectual and moral support.

Special thank you to Cassie Robinson for support and guidance on taking the work forward after publication (when the real work begins!) and to Francesca Allen for design of the publication and microsite.

Also a big thank you to the Innovation Unit for supporting this research and for a great deal of in-kind advice – particularly from Kathryn Tyler to whom we are indebted.

Thanks also to the advisory board for guidance, insights, and excellent comments on many drafts: Yvonne Roberts, Sandy Ruxton, Peter Baker, Chris Green, Nikki Van der Gaag. Thanks also to Will Bradley and Phillida Cheetham for research support.

Jen Lexmond & Matthew Horne 2012

CONTENTS Executive Summary 6 Note on structure and methodology 14 Section 1 A ‘crisis’ of masculinity? 16 1 Introduction 18 2 Structural change 25 Section 2 Boys’ and men’s changing psychology and mindset 00 3 Education 40 4 Work 50 5 Parenting 60 6 Relationships 69 7 Conclusion 77 8 Policy principles and recommendations 85 Appendix A: Focus group guides End Notes

92 96

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Over the past hundred years the spotlight has been shining on women. The work of feminism has brought benefits to all women – broadening women’s accepted roles in society, increasing their opportunities, challenging the limitations of traditional gender roles, pushing for legislative change to deliver equality, and forging positive, empowering visions for women to aspire to. Women have not had to call themselves ‘feminists’ in order to benefit indirectly from feminism’s work. The result is that today’s generation of women are doing better than ever at school, university and in the workplace, often outperforming their male counterparts.

But what has happened to men during this time? Without a sustained examination of men’s roles, stereotypes, and norms of masculinity, there has been little discussion about the condition of men. In part this is because our society is still dominated by men: in politics, business and the media men are still firmly in the driver’s seat.

However, the fact that some men are dominant does not mean that all men are doing well, and factors such as the decline of industry, change in family structures, and structures of welfare remediation are arguably hitting poor and working-class young men harder than anyone else in the country, leaving them with narrowing opportunities at school and at work, and a growing wealth gap between them and their more affluent peers.

The combination of social and economic change in the UK over past decades has affected men and women’s psychology differently. Much of this change has compounded the struggles of poor and workingclass boys and men. As a group, they are losing their sense of agency and control, which is dampening and depleting their aspiration for the future. As young men increasingly fail to take responsibility for their choices and lives, others around them are picking up the slack and taking on the roles and responsibilities they used to fulfil, further undermining their sense of purpose and usefulness.

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But why has structural change had this particularly negative effect on poor and working-class young men? Our research shows that this group in particular struggling to cope with and be resilient in the face of rapid and disruptive socio-economic change such as the shift from an industrial to a service economy, and the end of status quo for men’s role as the primary breadwinner in their households. One part of the explanation for this is that traditional working-class masculine stereotypes persist throughout society and remain ineffectively challenged or contested. Another part is the protective elements that wealth and social capital have on the affluent and the empowering effects that feminism has had on women and girls.

Not addressing many of the issues facing men and boys has serious consequences for both men and women: relationship breakdown and divorce, absent fathers/lack of male role models, aggression and domestic violence, and the sexualisation and objectification of women and girls. Solving problems for women and continuing the fight towards full equality between men and women will necessarily involve a closer and sustained focus on men, their problems and aspirations, as well.

KEY FINDINGS Our findings are rooted in qualitative research conducted with a small sample of residents from a deprived area in the north-west of England. We chose to conduct the fieldwork here, not because it is representative but because it encapsulates some of the worst socio-economic challenges facing men. It is one of the poorest parts of Britain, with one of the highest rate of lone parents in the UK, pockets of high unemployment, high dependency on benefits and low levels of skills and qualifications. This research into the lives of young men and young women built on our analysis of the academic literature, and the policy literature on boys, men and masculinity. We have also benefited from the ideas, challenge and critique of a number of experts on gender and social class.

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EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT An educational attainment gap remains in the classroom and is clearly shaped by both gender and class. Girls surpass boys nationally at every examination level, but the largest gap remains between social classes.

These two gaps also interact with each other: the gender gap is widest among students eligible for free school meals. This gap is underpinned by girls’ earlier development (on average) of skills like application, emotional resilience and self-regulation. There is some biological explanation for this disparity, but expectations from parents, teachers and wider society (particularly via advertising) also play a significant role.

Our qualitative research found that young men and women are aware of gendered approaches used by parents and teachers at home and in the classroom, and aware of the way this has shaped their roles and attitudes. It is a commonly held belief that girls mature faster than boys and that this is in part due to different expectations that parents, school and the community have for young men and young women.

One of the consequences is that more boys are disengaged from school than girls and more likely to display ‘too cool for school’ attitudes.

There is a prevalent feeling amongst many of the young men we spoke to that school is a waste of time, and has very little impact on success in the working world.

WORK Conceptions of working-class masculinity continue to hold back young working-class men growing up in a knowledge-based economy where the service sector has replaced agriculture, manufacturing and heavy industry as the main source of growth. The low-paid service jobs (such as clerical work and cashiering) that have replaced manual and manufacturing jobs are still mostly carried out by women.

The recession is exacerbating existing problems. Whilst women have been hit harder by the recession (being hit worst by the bulk of 8 | A MAN’S WORTH

public spending cuts and seeing higher levels of unemployment) men are coping less well with unemployment, a response which might be attributed in part to the greater importance to male identity of traditional models of work in traditional male-dominated industries.

Our qualitative research found that traditional conceptions of ‘women’s’ and ‘men’s’ work still remain. Young women feel that being a mother is not given the recognition by others that it deserves. For them it is a full-time job. A mixture of real and perceived lack of opportunity in the job market is having a negative effect on many young people’s aspiration and motivation to work. It was felt, however, that this was affecting young men more than young women.

PARENTING For many young men that we spoke to, fatherhood is neither an expectation of those around them, nor an aspiration for themselves.

Fatherhood remains a vague prospect to be evaded, and something that they are perpetually underprepared for. For those who do become active fathers at a young age, the persistent conception of their role as ‘breadwinner’ creates a situation in which unemployed men feel obsolete or redundant in family life. This perception that unless fathers are earning they have nothing to offer is exacerbated by welfare policies that reinforce traditional male roles and do not promote shared parenting. As David Willets writes in The Pinch, “A welfare system that was originally designed to compensate men for loss of earning…[has] slowly and messily [been] redesigned to compensate women for the loss of men”. There are no winners in this scenario.

In our qualitative research, we found that motherhood is perceived as a very positive experience for some young women, including teenage mothers, and is seen as playing a big role in young women’s transition to adulthood – inspiring responsibility, resilience and interdependence among women, their friends and their families. Motherhood is viewed as a positive and responsible way to contribute socially and economically. It is seen as a ‘full-time job’ – a way of being A MAN’S WORTH | 9

constructive and productive. The same is not true of fatherhood.

RELATIONSHIPS The policy debate on relationships remain focused on increasing marriage rates as a route towards stronger relationships, rather than focusing on how to strengthen relationships themselves, whatever their formal status. Evidence suggests that relationship stability is more important to wellbeing than marital status. Cohabitation has become an important testing ground for new relationships and in some case a distinct alternative to marriage.

Marriage has become a middle-class aspiration, with low income couples much less likely to get married, a pattern not seen for 150 years.

The young people whom we spoke to and listened to are emphatic about the importance of committed relationships, but do not associate marriage with commitment. In fact, the institution of marriage was frowned on by many younger people we spoke to because, although it represented the values of commitment, it was no longer felt to have the moral weight attached to it to stop people from cheating and breaking up in reality. Furthermore, getting married and subsequent divorce was viewed as prohibitively expensive.

In particular, young women see a clear distinction between engagement and marriage. While getting engaged was seen as a way to show love, marriage became a byword for being trapped; this term ‘trapped’ was mentioned repeatedly. Young women feel empowered and independent and many believe they will be better off on their own. In many cases, the support of the welfare state for young mothers is a key rationale in these attitudes.

Meanwhile, new evidence shows that when relationships break down, men are tending to cope less well than women, perhaps contrary to the traditional association between ‘masculinity’ and independence.

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POLICY PRINCIPLES As a result of our findings, we believe there is a need for a more coherent policy response to address the problems and concerns of boys and men, particularly in low-income families, alongside attempts to address the issues faced by women. This needs to be part of a greater push for gender equality as a whole. Gender equality should be understood here as a firmly liberal aim: it is fundamentally about increasing the freedoms – or the ‘opportunity set’ as Amartya Sen would describe it – of both sexes. It is therefore also a key ingredient of a more socially mobile society. We have identified the following principles that should serve as a guide to meeting these objectives: o Gender equality means equality for men too Moving towards gender equality requires dealing explicitly with men’s problems as well as women’s and at the same time emphasising the role of both genders in supporting gender equality measures. o There should be support for relationship stability rather than marital status Resources should be spent on increasing and developing the provision of relationship support and preventing domestic violence, rather than promoting certain family structures. o Men need support and encouragement to be engaged parents Good parents provide financial, emotional and practical support and care to their children, regardless of the sex of the parent. Policies should support fathers to make a wider and continuous contribution to their children’s wellbeing rather than corralling them in a traditional and limited role as ‘breadwinner’ and financial guarantor. o Traditional narrow gender roles should be challenged not reinforced Traditional gender roles are restrictive. Efforts should be made to broaden gender roles through combating stereotypes in the media and supporting many different role models for young men and women. o Gender relations are not a zero-sum game Although this report calls for attention and resources to be given to tackle men’s concerns, it is imperative that existing funding, resources and support are not A MAN’S WORTH | 11

redirected from existing services designed for women, many of which are already vulnerable to recent cuts and the recession.

• Boys and girls need support to be self-reflective learners Aspiration and resilience is underpinned by strong educational foundations and opportunities to build confidence and life experience for both boys and girls. Government policy should focus on this to improve boys’ attainment and to broaden the aspirations and ambitions of boys and girls rather than focusing exclusively on strategies to recruit more male teachers.

• Aspirations and expectations matters as much, but not more than, structural realities Policies to support gender equality must address economic and social structures and the psychological causes of gender inequality.

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STRUCTURE OF THIS REPORT This report is split into two main sections. Part 1 provides a critical overview of existing evidence of a modern masculinity crisis and identifies key social and economic trends that have shaped gender relations in contemporary society. It is based on a literature and policy review with a national focus. It also sometimes draws on international comparisons and local data.

Part 2 focuses on these issues by bringing the perspectives and views of young men and women to the fore, and within a localised context.

It is based on qualitative research with residents, youth workers, council officers and community organisers. The concluding chapter draws together key insights and provides policy principles and recommendations.

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NOTES ON STRUCTURE & METHODOLOGY This report is split into two main sections. Part 1 provides a critical overview of existing evidence of a modern masculinity crisis and identifies key social and economic trends that have shaped gender relations in contemporary society. It is based on a literature and policy review with a national focus. It also sometimes draws on international comparisons and local data.

Part 2 focuses on these issues by bringing the perspectives and views of young men and women to the fore, and within a localised context. It is based on qualitative research with residents, youth worker council officers and community organisers. The concluding chapter draws together key insights and provides policy principles and recommendations.

Our analysis of the impact of structural change and gendered expectations on young men is informed by qualitative research conducted with a small sample of residents living in a deprived community in the north-west of England.

Through working with community and youth workers we recruited local young people to take part in single sex discussion groups. These focused on young people’s experience of growing up, the expectations and aspirations they had for their futures, and what they thought about being a young man, or young woman in today’s society. This included ten young men and eight young women split across four focus groups.

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Themes covered in the discussions included: • independence and identity • work and aspiration • couple relationships • parenting and raising children • social networks and getting around • gendered attitudes and stereotypes • social and economic change over time in this north-western community We also spoke to older men and women, many of whom have lived in the same community for over half a century. We were interested to understand how individuals who had lived through structural change experienced it, and their thoughts on how social and economic change had impacted on the next generations. The mixed group included 12 older men and women including some couples. We also interviewed youth workers, community organisers and council officers.

Consistency of themes and questions across groups and interviews allowed us to conduct some comparative analysis of different attitudes and aspirations between each group, particularly with regard to young men and young women’s attitudes and aspirations.

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| Section 1 |

A ‘CRISIS’ OF MASCULINITY?

1. INTRODUCTION There is a collective worry that men, and particularly young working-class men, are falling behind in our society, that they are experiencing a range of social and economic problems by which girls are less affected, and that the traditional masculine identity has been undermined because of recent structural change. These combined problems have led many commentators, politicians and academics to question whether men are experiencing a crisis of masculinity.

A wealth of commentary and literature has been developed to describe and analyse the different causes, symptoms and consequences of this ‘crisis’. Take the 2011 Summer riots: although masculine norms were not outright blamed for the riots, politicians were quick to locate absent fathers, poor parenting, and a lack of suitable male role models as key causes and drivers of young men’s behaviour. More in general, headlines such as ‘Feral youths: how a generation of violent, illiterate young men are living outside the boundaries of civilised society’,1 ‘Are men becoming redundant?’,2 ‘The quiet revolution – women surpassing men’3 and ‘Teenage boys fail to make the grade…’4 abound.

They all attempt to describe the ways in which male identity is being eroded by widespread economic and social change, with damaging consequences for men’s and boys’ health, wellbeing and outcomes.

Academics, politicians and even feminists have become concerned too. Linda McDowell, Professor of Human Geography at Oxford University, notes the widespread popular and academic agreement that something is troubling men – that the trouble is made visible, for example through laddish behaviour or rising suicide rates among young men.5 Will Hutton describes ‘an army of underperforming, unnecessary idle, and too often unemployed young men’, leading to educational underachievement and poor outcomes for boys in modern society.6 Frank Field describes how young fathers’ lack of personal responsibility, resilience and drive has become a leading cause of family breakdown and poverty,7 while the UK Coalition on Men and Boys argues that men’s violence represents a serious and increasing 18 | A MAN’S WORTH

social problem, with men making up the majority of perpetrators and victims of violence, and with the murder rate more than doubling in recent decades.8 Although not a new phenomenon, gendered violence is still shamefully widespread, particularly among partners and families.9 Two women per week are killed by a current or former male partner and 89 per cent of serious domestic violence victims are women.10 The ‘crisis’ is not just a media-fuelled phenomenon.

POLICY LANDSCAPE This ‘crisis’ is increasingly being taken seriously by policy makers too, most notably in their approach to increasing male role models for boys in family and education contexts. Government is making inroads into supporting fathers to take a more active role in caring for their children. Two weeks of statutory paid paternity leave was introduced in 2003, with additional transferable parental leave introduced shortly after. In 2011 Nick Clegg announced a commitment to increase leave for fathers, including exploring ‘use it or lose it’ leave for fathers (‘daddy month’) and making all leave transferable between both parents.11 Well-paid leave and flexible working, however, remains stubbornly out of reach for many fathers.

In educational policy, much policy attention has been invested in designing ‘boy-friendly’ teaching strategies (for example increasing male role models, male mentoring, reducing course work and so on) but little has been done to combat sexism and gender stereotyping at school, as well as the peer-led ‘anti-school’ attitude prevalent among boys. Additionally, attainment gaps in gender, social class/income group, and ethnicity interact in complex ways, but the strategies for reducing these gaps remain discreet and not joined up.

Policy makers have had some success in designing male-specific approaches to health services, in response to a growing research base showing men’s reluctance to seek help when faced with a health problem – mental or physical. For example, research by the charity Working with Men found that men were far less likely than women to A MAN’S WORTH | 19

see a counsellor. In addition, the research showed that 48 per cent of men would leave a problem for longer than one month before seeking advice.12 It is long established that men’s reluctance to seek help or advice is connected to the higher instance of suicide among men than women. Male suicide has been on the rise since the mid-1980s and remains the biggest killer of young men aged 15–30.13 The Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that male suicide rates have remained consistently higher than those of women – in 2009 there were 4,034 male suicides, compared with 1,371 female; the figures show that men aged between 15 and 44 and those over 75 have the highest risk of committing suicide.14 Organisations such as the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM; www.thecalmzone.net/) and Men’s Health Forum (www.menshealthforum.org.uk/) have been supporting policy makers to design strategies to support men’s mental and physical health, with some notable successes. CALM was commissioned by the National Health Service in Merseyside to promote its a mental health campaign in 2000. The number of suicides amongst young men has fallen year on year by a total of 55% between 1999–2009. Equally, Men’s Health Forum was a Department for Health strategic partner until March 2012. Men’s Health15 But current strategies for reducing other social problems that are particularly prevalent among men, such as substance abuse, violence or anti-social behaviour, are less progressive and proving less successful. Strategies here are strongly focused on punitive measures or incarceration. Figures released by HM Prison Service in 2011 show that the UK’s prisons are running at almost 100 per cent capacity, and over 90 per cent of the UK’s prison population are male. A similar level of Asbos are given to men too.16 Punitive measures designed to punish anti-social behaviour have proved largely ineffective, with recent statistics setting the Asbo breach rate at 73 per cent.17 Strategies to combat gender violence and sexual harassment are also out of date and do not take into account many of the links between gender stereotyping, the objectification of women in the 20 | A MAN’S WORTH

media, the growth of the pornography industry, and the recent rise in homophobic attacks.18 The scepticism that greeted Linda Papadopoulos’ recent report to the Home Office on the impact of the sexualisation of young girls on rates of violence against women is a case in point,19 providing a strong reminder of the work that still needs to be done to convince mainstream figures of the importance of gender-informed policy-making.20 Regardless of perception, the figures are stark: figures from Scotland Yard show there was a rise in the number of homophobic attacks in 2009/10 following a 9 per cent rise in 2008/09.21 In addition, Home Office statistics show that domestic violence accounts for between 16 per cent and a quarter of all recorded violent crime, with one incident reported to the police every minute.22 These statistics come at a time when rape conviction rates remain shockingly low, and rape and sexual violence is being played down by politicians as a serious issue of violence (see for example, the alleged comments made in May 2011 by the Justice Secretary about there being a distinction between cases of serious and less serious rape 23).

So although there has been an increase in ‘male’ focused policies in particular areas, and these are positive steps, the government still lacks a coherent and joined up approach for boys and men looking holistically at the range of challenges they face. As the Coalition on Men and Boys identifies, part of doing this involves building up a more accurate picture of men as a group that not only causes problems (through violence, objectification of women, being absentee parents), but also has problems (poor mental health, educational disengagement, structural unemployment). Achieving this requires a more sophisticated understanding of the ways that social and economic change has affected gender relations, as well as recognition that boys and men must be supported in the context of a wider aim for gender equality for women too.

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QUESTIONING THE CRISIS Many of the more simplistic claims about the crisis do not stand up to scrutiny precisely because they tend to view men’s and women’s relative positions in society as a snapshot rather than in the context of a mixture of change and continuity for different groups over time.

They forget that overall, affluent men are still the dominant group in society and that social class, race, sexuality and region can be just as important in shaping outcomes and life chances and often serve as a more important marker of identity than sex.

Still a man’s world?

In many parts of British society, despite the progress made towards gender equality, men still maintain a dominant position. In a recent publication from the Coalition on Men and Boys (the UK’s only collective voice representing men’s concerns across the policy spectrum), the authors state that despite challenges facing some men and boys at the ‘sharp end of social change’ becoming more pressing and visible, in general, ‘the enduring dominance of men in positions of power remains largely unaffected’.24 In political representation, positions of power in the boardroom, and representation in the media, police or judiciary, men are firmly in the driver’s seat.

Among affluent men and women, inequalities remain: female MPs make up 22% of the total and around only 13.2 council leaders are women.25 Just over 12 per cent of FTSE 100 company directors are female, despite making up just under half of the workforce.26 Men still retain authority at senior levels across a wide range of other sectors of our economy.

Men remain more visible and more influential in the media. A multinational study of print and broadcast media in over 100 countries in 2010 by the Global Media Monitoring Project found that only 24% of all news subjects were female; within that women were the in the majority of subjects in only two categories: homemakers (76%) and students (54%).27 In the US, Women represented only 21.7% of guests on Sunday morning news talk shows that aired on 22 | A MAN’S WORTH

NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, and Fox News. Of the 250 top domestic grossing films, women were only 5% of the directors, 14% of the writers, 18% of the executive producers, 25% of the producers, 20% of the editors, and 4% of the cinematographers.28 Other research published by the Geena Davis Institute found that females are a scarce resource in family films in the USA: their analysis found there are 2.42 males for every female. Even fewer women were found behind the camera: there were 4.88 males working behind the scenes to every one female.29 The media is a powerful social institution shaping views and aspirations, particularly those of children and young people. The ways that gender relations are portrayed and stereotyped in film, TV and advertising is hugely influential.

Masculinity, masculinities

Most serious research into masculinities from academia and international organisations such as the UN and EU rejects the simplistic media fuelled argument that all men and boys are ‘in crisis’ or that they are in some way losing out as a group to women and girls. Rather, these sources highlight the diversity of ways in which boys and men develop and lead their lives depending on their own socio-economic circumstances, including the effect of class, race and sexuality on the way they play out their masculinity. This research focuses on the ‘problems that men create and the problems they experience, the connections between men’s power and marginalisation, and men’s actual and potential contributions to society’.30 Sociologists and gender studies experts working in the field of masculinities have long recognised the heteogeneity of masculine identity, hence the linguistic shift in the academic study from masculinity (singular) to masculinities (plural). Understanding men’s identities and the complex power dynamics at work within different male demographics – particularly in terms of sexuality and ethnicity – (as opposed to just between men and women as unified groups) is key to achieving a more sophisticated and more accurate reading of the current ‘masculinity crisis’. 31 & 32

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Crisis of the working class

Many critiques question both the newness and character of the crisis, suggesting that what we are witnessing is more complex than a genderbased issue, and one that reaches into class as well. For example, a report from the Sutton Trust found that of the leading 100 individuals across five professions, 53 per cent were educated at private schools.33 The conflict between class and gender inequalities can be explored in another way through the recent analysis by David Willetts in his book examining intergenerational inequality, The Pinch. He argues that the increase of affluent young women into university, and hence into higher skilled jobs, has taken places and opportunities away from working-class men: “It is delicate territory, because it is not a bad thing that women had these opportunities… but it widened the gap in household incomes, because you suddenly had two-earner couples, both of whom were well-educated, compared with often workless households where nobody was educated.34” While many baulk at the blame that Willetts’ analysis seems to level at women, it does illustrate the tension between class and gender, and shows how working-class men in particular have suffered through recent social and economic change. But, as McDowall argues, classbased inequalities are negatively affecting both working-class men and women as they ‘find… [their] standards of living threatened in the service-based economy’.35 Similarly, in an essay entitled ‘There is no masculinity crisis’, James Heartfield provides a Marxist critique of the crisis, arguing that the concept ‘fails to describe the real conditions, both at the level of values, where men and women prove to be less dissimilar than a gender analysis of masculinity suggests’.36 He further argues: It is wrong to see this loss of power as a loss in relation to women.

Rather it is in relation to capital that men and women alike have lost authority. The cumulative defeats inflicted upon working-class organisations in the 1980s and 90s have created a condition in which 24 | A MAN’S WORTH

working class subjectivity has been diminished. The crisis is not one of masculinity, but one of the working class.37

UNDERSTANDING THE CRISIS To get a more sophisticated understanding of what is happening, we must not assess contemporary gender relations solely through a ‘snapshot’ of men’s and women’s relative successes, opportunities and outcomes, at any given time. To do so is to view gender relations truly as a ‘battle of the sexes’, a zero-sum game where progress for one group is a loss for the other. In most, if not all, cases increasing levels of health, wellbeing and equality for men and women is a mutually beneficial process. The real battle of the sexes is a battle to increase the collective freedoms of both groups: the sum total of life choices and life chances for women and men.

Instead, we need to take a broader and more nuanced view on how long-term structural change has affected men and women differently and how this has changed gender relations in society. And we should be concerned with how this change has affected not only outcomes, but also psychology and mindsets among men and women. Our focus is on those young men at the sharper edges of structural change living in communities with high unemployment, low incomes and low levels of education. We are interested in their shifting aspirations, sense of personal responsibility and sense of control in relation to education, work, relationships and parenting. We argue that the psychological shifts that have taken place in response to structural change, among young working-class men in particular, are increasingly indicative of boys’ and men’s current struggles, and of how we can address them.

2. STRUCTURAL CHANGE In reality, social and economic change affects groups of people in complex and multifaceted ways, not directly and discreetly. Hence, A MAN’S WORTH | 25

while men, overall, still maintain a dominant role and share of resources in society, many men’s realities do not match up with this snapshot picture. Conversely, while women continue to struggle towards gender equality, many women have enjoyed remarkable progress and power over the past few generations, and are increasingly responding and adapting better than men to current challenges. This chapter explores some of the key social and economic changes that have impacted on gender relations in recent times and are based on a review of existing academic literature and UK policy documentation: • • • • •

the decline of traditional industries the influx of women into the labour market changes to family form increase in welfare remediation the commoditisation of childhood

THE DECLINE OF TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES Deindustrialisation affected the UK in a more fundamental way than it affected most other advanced capitalist economies. Since the 1960s, the UK had begun a process of deindustrialisation, reaching a peak in the 1980s. Although deindustrialisation is standard for advanced industrial states, the UK’s manufacturing industry stagnated and then declined more severely than it did in many otherwise similar economies, for example the USA or Germany. Between 1971 and 1989 more jobs in manufacturing were lost in Britain than in any other European country – 2.8 million in total.38 Between 2008 and 1985 the percentage of men employed in manufacturing jobs decreased from 28 per cent to 16 per cent. The proportion of women employed in manufacturing jobs also decreased, from 15 per cent to 5 per cent. There was then a subsequent rise in the number of people employed in the services sector, which accounted for 74 per cent and 92 per cent of jobs for men and women respectively in 2008.39 Many of the consequences of deindustrialisation were felt much more keenly on a local level, where entire communities that were sustained 26 | A MAN’S WORTH

by an industry faced unemployment and cycles of worklessness that have today become intergenerational. A report by the government’s Social Exclusion Unit showed that worklessness in the UK is disproportionately represented in local authority areas classified as either ‘mining/manufacturing’ or ‘cities/services’. In addition, the report found that six out of ten of such local authorities were in the North East, North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber, with only one in ten in London.40 This shift affected working-class men more than those men in professional or managerial positions. The industrial labour market in many ways solidified a certain masculine identity, ensuring a strict sexual division of labour, a notion of the male ‘bread-winner’ and male physical hardness.41 As the service economy began to grow, taking the place of manufacturing, young working-class males were more likely to be ‘learning to serve’ rather than ‘learning to labour’.42 Deindustrialisation didn’t just change the economy, it unsettled traditional notions of masculinity, misplaced pride among workingclass men, and complicated the pathways taken by many young men into the world of work.

The more recent global recession has exacerbated some of these gendered trends. In 2008/09, a higher proportion of men were made redundant than women, 15 per cent compared with 7 per cent respectively. This was due to high levels of redundancies in the male dominated construction and finance sectors, which were particularly badly affected.43 Women, who are more heavily concentrated in public sector and caring and service jobs, were more protected in the beginning, but as public sector cuts start to bite in education, the NHS and early years’ services, women’s jobs are being affected more heavily than those of men. Out of 48,000 extra people that became unemployed in the final quarter of 2011, two thirds were women.44 As women are more likely than men to be working in low-paid and part-time jobs they are also uniquely affected by the recession, specifically reductions in part-time hours.45 A MAN’S WORTH | 27

The recession is also hitting young people particularly hard. The unemployment rate for 16–24-year-olds is currently a staggering 22.3 per cent compared with 8.4 per cent for the population as a whole.

That’s over one million young people out of work, the highest figure since records began in 1992.46

THE ENTRY OF WOMEN INTO THE LABOUR MARKET Over the past four decades the proportion of women in employment has grown markedly. At the start of 1971, the employment rate for women was 56 per cent, but by 2008 it was 70 per cent. This increase compares with a similar-sized decrease in the employment rate for men over the same period, with the employment rate of men falling from 92 per cent to 78 per cent.47 Similarly, there have been increases in the number of employee jobs in the UK held by women compared with men. For example, in 1985 men filled two million more jobs than did women but by 2008 the numbers matched each other, with men and women holding around 13.6 million jobs each. However, important differences still remain: women are around three times as likely to be in part-time work as men, and men are far more likely than women to be employed in skilled work and manufacturing (despite the effects of deindustrialisation).48 As women joined the labour market in great numbers, the competition for jobs increased, in some cases exacerbating existing socio-economic divisions. For example, it was largely affluent women who took advantage of opportunities in higher education, and subsequent employment options. While creating a genderequalising effect overall, women’s entry into higher education and employment also may have contributed to greater inequality between classes, undermining the position of working-class men and women.

Crucially, this transformation has not been zero-sum – the rise in female employment has not come at the direct expense of men’s employment, but rather has interacted in complex ways with class inequalities.

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CHANGING FAMILY STRUCTURES The structure and shape of families has also changed rapidly over the past few decades, in part as a response to this economic change.

Marriage is declining, and couples are more likely to marry later or to cohabit today than in the past. The ONS shows that the UK is currently home to around 2.2 million cohabiting, unmarried couples.

In 2000, 26 per cent of people aged 25–29 were cohabiting, up from 18 per cent only five years earlier.49 Whether a trial run or prelude to marriage, or even a long-term alternative to it, cohabitation has quickly become an expected and accepted part of forming relationships. Over the past decade, the mean age at marriage for men has increased by nearly five and a half years and for women by just over four and a halfyears. In 2008, the average age of marriage for never-married individuals was 32.1 for men and 29.9 for women.50 Measured by the standard indicators for young people’s transition to adulthood – not just getting married, but also moving out of the family home and becoming financially independent – today’s young people – especially young men – are moving into adulthood much later in life than in the past. In 2009, nearly one-third (29 per cent) of young men (20–34-year-olds) were still living with their parents compared with only 18 per cent of young women in the same age range.51 Much of this delay has to do with rising house prices and reduced economic opportunity, although the gender gap cannot be fully accounted for in this way.

Of the plethora of changes to family structures witnessed over recent decades, one of the most profound is the growth of the single parent household. Since the 1960s, the proportion of people living in single parent households in the UK has risen exponentially: between 1961 and 1981 the number doubled (from 3 per cent to 6 per cent) and doubled again between 1981 and 2009 (from 6 per cent to 12 per cent).52 In more deprived parts of the country, there are more instances of lone parent families, with the highest rate of lone parents in a UK borough being a staggering 47 per cent.53 The vast majority of these single parent households are headed by a lone mother; A MAN’S WORTH | 29

nationally, this figure is around 92 per cent, with around 8 per cent headed by a lone father.54 Single mums are more likely to be young mums too. According to the 2001 census, the majority of young mothers in the UK bring up their children alone – 61 per cent of mothers aged under 20 – were lone parents and only 9 per cent were married.55 It appears, then, that fathers, and especially young fathers, are for the most part not involved in the upbringing of their children. The term ‘family breakdown’ does not really describe this phenomenon – rather, for many young parents in deprived areas, families are never established in the first place.

THE GROWTH IN WELFARE REMEDIATION The welfare state was designed to reduce division in society and support the poor and disadvantaged. Today, a complex benefits system exists – and is in the process of being simplified into a single universal credit – responding to new division created in society through some of the structural changes discussed above. Economic change, globalisation and deindustrialisation did not occur in an even way, with certain parts of the country suffering from structural unemployment, with many individuals, and some entire communities, becoming largely economically inactive or participating largely in informal economies.

Youth unemployment – again, particularly for working-class men – and intergenerational unemployment are a serious problem made worse by the current recession. Many welfare to work schemes have been developed, such as the New Deals and now the Work Programme, but have had mixed success.56 Some critics say that the benefits system, while supporting those out of work, is also propping up structural unemployment and undermining aspiration and the personal responsibility of recipients. While there is largely no supporting evidence for claims of ‘cultures of worklessness’ developing in response to welfare support, there is a growing evidence base linking negative psycho-social outcomes with long-term 30 | A MAN’S WORTH

unemployment, which can become intergenerational.57 Although intergenerational and geographically located worklessness can be accounted for by Britain’s shift away from manufacturing and towards a service oriented economy, it fails to account for the continued growth of worklessness – particularly in the north of England – during the decades that followed the 1980s. In 1999 research by Gregg and Wadsworth showed that the number of workless households had roughly quadrupled over the past 30 years although the UK job market had remained largely constant.58 In response, the welfare state has taken on an increasingly interventionist role, whether through the benefits system supporting lone parents or granting leave to mothers and fathers, or the growth of early years and parenting support services. Again, critics point to the marginalising effect that many of these services have on fathers, particularly in the case of relationship breakdown and divorce.

Crucially, the state sustained the image and reality of mothers as the natural or primary carer, privileging them above fathers when making decisions about custody or parental leave – often for very good reasons relating to domestic violence or caring capability. Fathers’ role remained breadwinner. But in cases where fathers could not fulfil this role through child support payments, the state would step in to provide income support and housing benefits instead.

These shifts to legislation and the welfare state have led to what some describe as a ‘couple penalty’ that discourages couples from moving in together because they will lose out in benefits.59 Post-divorce or post-relationship breakdown, many fathers – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – have a small to negligible role to play in family life, playing neither a carer nor breadwinner role. The extent to which this has been influenced by welfare interventions designed to support single parents with income and childcare is debatable, but our qualitative research shows that young mothers from disadvantaged areas have expectations of support from the welfare state that often exceed the expectations they have of the father of their children.

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The current policy landscape could be said to be both responding to the needs of vulnerable, lone mothers and perpetuating the cycle of lone parenting through stepping in where many fathers either fail to or are unable to fulfil their responsibilities. And, discouragingly, the increasingly structural role that the state plays in supporting lowincome, lone parent families could be seen as facilitating irresponsible parenting by fathers, and perpetuating the stereotype that fathers are not, and cannot, be primary carers.

THE COMMODITISATION OF CHILDHOOD During the second half of the twentieth century there was an explosion in consumer culture driven by the development of mass marketing, television advertising and rising incomes. More recently, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, advertisers and manufacturers have successfully defined both motherhood and childhood as new consumer categories.60 Today’s children and young people are living in an environment entirely different from any generation before them, one in which the social norms imposed by parents, class and geography have had to compete with a second level of norm: the gender and social stereotypes articulated in the mass media and through advertising campaigns.

A recent survey commissioned by Saga and Netmums revealed that 61 per cent of parents born in the 1930s would typically spend less than £50 on Christmas presents; the figure has dropped to just 14 per cent today, a serious decrease even taking inflation into account.61 The same survey showed that 90 per cent of parents agree that more money is spent on children nowadays than when they were young.

These consumer trends are not happening by chance, but rather through the strategic development of new markets aimed at these groups. The children’s clothes market was worth £6billion in 2006, up from just over £3 billion in 1996.62 The European Commission on Enterprise and Industry valued the EU toy market at €14.5 billion in 2009, with the infant and preschool market taking almost 20 per cent of market share, up from just over 10 per cent in 2000.63 32 | A MAN’S WORTH

Gender stereotyping through toys and children’s marketing is stronger now than ever before. Becky Francis, Professor of Education at Roehampton University, notes how the packaging, colour schemes and even the area of the shop that boys’ and girls’ respective toys are housed in has become more polarised and separate. In her study of gender, toys and learning, she found that parents tend to guide their sons towards toys based on action and machinery, and their daughters towards toys based on ‘feminine’ interests such as hairdressing, caring and socialising. The interesting point about her study is that it focused on parents’ preferences for toys for their children, rather than children’s ‘innate’ preferences.64 Marketing aimed at children is simultaneously being aimed at parents, shaping their buying habits for their children. While marketisation cannot completely explain these trends, evidence shows that they certainly encourage and exaggerate them, leading to further inequalities down the line.

These trends are supporting and reinforcing stereotypical gendered behaviours from a very young age for many girls and boys. It is likely, for example, that gendered toys are supporting girls’ greater social and emotional development in the early years, an area in which boys are currently struggling.65 The growth of advertising aimed at girls and the sexualisation of girls’ toys and clothes is also having a negative impact on gender relations – sending messages to boys and girls about the objectification of girls and women.66

ENGAGING WITH COMMUNITIES This chapter has explored how recent social and economic changes have affected gender and class relations. The next section explores this relationship further, showing how those changes have affected men’s and women’s psychology and mindsets differently, and how that has led to inequalities in behaviours and outcomes. It focuses specifically on the case of poor and working-class men and boys, and is based on: • direct engagement with residents living in disadvantaged A MAN’S WORTH | 33

•

communities in a north-western area of the country, which has absorbed many of the negative effects of the structural changes described above, and is grappling with many of the social problems previously discussed a review of academic literature, policy documents and recent media coverage on gendered outcomes, the ‘crisis of masculinity’, relevant areas of family, education and welfare policy, gendered development and socialisation, and feminist theory

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by recent social and economic change. Discussions focused on young people’s experience of growing up, the expectations and aspirations they had for their futures, and what they thought about being a young man or young woman in today’s society. Many elements of the separate conversations with young men and women were thematically similar, allowing us to compare the mindsets, aspirations and expectations, as well as outcomes, in each group. In particular, we explored: * education * work * parenting * relationships We also spoke to older men and women, many of whom have lived in the area for over half a century.

We were interested to understand how structural change was experienced by individuals living through it, and their thoughts on how social and economic change had impacted on the next generations. Finally, A MAN’S WORTH | 35

| Section 2 |

BOYS & MENS CHANGING PSYCHOLOGY AND MINDSET

This section explores previous themes from section 1 further with new primary qualitative research findings with people and communities living at the sharp end of structural change.

The qualitative research was conducted with residents living in an area of the country heavily affected by recent social and economic change.

Discussions focused on young people’s experience of growing up, the expectations and aspirations they had for their futures, and what they thought about being a young man or young woman in today’s society. Many elements of the separate conversations with young men and women were thematically similar, allowing us to compare the mindsets, aspirations and expectations, as well as outcomes, in each group. In particular, we explored: • • • •

education work parenting relationships

We also spoke to older men and women, many of whom have lived in the area for over half a century. We were interested to understand how structural change was experienced by individuals living through it, and their thoughts on how social and economic change had impacted on the next generations. Finally, we held many interviews with youth workers, community organisers, local council employees, policy makers and academics to give context to the views of participants.

Key findings from the qualitative research are presented and supported with further secondary research findings from our literature and policy review. This secondary research is national in scope, surveying and evaluating specific approaches to men and boys in British public policy from the current and previous Government, as well as identifying gaps in gendered policy strategies and evaluating different approaches. The literature review draws on national and international feminist theory, including theories of masculinities, and provides an overview of the history and development of the concept of gender.

It also involves a review of how gendered stereotypes and images are 38 | A MAN’S WORTH

produced and reproduced in popular culture, and explores the role of the media in developing and perpetuating the idea of a ‘crisis of masculinity’.

Our primary research demonstrated that there is a strong, mutually reinforcing relationship between social and economic changes on a macro level, and between personal outlook, aspiration and psychology on a micro level. A sense of control is an essential component of personal motivation and aspiration. If we believe things that happen to us are largely out of our control, then there is little reason to try to change things, or to improve our situation.

The combination of social and economic change in the UK over past decades has affected men and women’s psychology differently. Much of this change has compounded the struggles of poor and workingclass boys and men. As a group, they are losing their sense of agency and control, which is dampening and depleting their aspiration for the future. As young men increasingly fail to take responsibility for their choices and lives, others around them are picking up the slack and taking on the roles and responsibilities they used to fulfil, further undermining their sense of purpose and usefulness.

But why has structural change had this particularly negative effect on poor and working-class young men? One part of the explanation for this is the protective elements that wealth and social capital have on the affluent. Another is the empowering effects of feminism and the benefits it has brought to all women – broadening women’s accepted roles in society, increasing their opportunities, challenging the limitations of traditional gender roles, pushing for legislative change to deliver equality, and forging positive, empowering visions for women to aspire to. Women have not had to call themselves ‘feminists’ in order to benefit indirectly from feminism’s work.

Structural change has left many poor and working-class young people with narrowing opportunities at school and work, and a growing wealth gap between them and their more affluent peers. Gendered expectations by parents, teachers, girlfriends, partners, peers, A MAN’S WORTH | 39

employers and the state are further limiting the aspirations of many young men. In attempting to regain control, many poor and workingclass boys and men are employing reactive strategies that are harmful to themselves and those around them, including: • • • •

fighting (taking part in anti-social behaviour, sexual and domestic violence) flocking (being involved in gang activity, chav culture) flighting (disengaging from school, growing dependent on the state for income support or, at the extreme end, escapism through substance abuse or suicide) freezing (‘failure to launch’ syndrome: staying at home with mum, eschewing the responsibilities of fatherhood)

The great majority of young men grow up to become responsible, reflective and supportive individuals, as partners, fathers, friends and professionals. But too often boys are not pushed to mature, and without being pushed they simply choose not to. Unhelpfully, gendered expectations and policy strategies often perpetuate these responses often leading to many of the problem behaviours outlined above.

3. EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT Nowhere are concerns about the crisis among boys more pronounced than the classroom. Today, boys are more likely to be disengaged at school, to do less well in exams, and ultimately be less likely to be accepted to university and to get good degrees than girls. Boys’ struggles at school are compounded by unhelpful expectations from teachers and parents (as well as policy makers) about how boys and girls learn, what they are naturally better at, and who they learn from best. Our primary and secondary research shows that many of these expectations are set in place from the earliest point – through gendered socialisation and parenting in boys’ earliest years of life – and shape boys’ attitudes and aspirations at school.

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Most young men who participated in our qualitative research held negative views towards school. They felt neither engaged nor motivated to succeed academically, and many felt that working hard at school does not lead to rewards in the working world. Although many young women shared these views to some extent, young men’s lack of motivation and feeling that there is no link between achievement at school and success in the job market was marked: “[I] don’t like [school]; [it’s] sh*t; I like going to school and seeing friends but rest of it [I] don’t like.”

“Recently got a degree (performing arts – theatre stuff), but can’t get a job, no money. Can’t buy presents for Christmas. Not being fussy about the kind of work – would take anything/clean toilets – but just not finding anything. [I] can commute. There are just not any opportunities.”

Work is about who you are; people will treat you according to your job title; if you’re a cleaner or bar maid, that’s what you are. You could be proper smart but people will just think that you are what your job is. That’s all you’re qualified to do, but you could just be lazy to do another job.

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT Boys currently lag behind girls overall at every level: key stages, GCSEs and A-levels, although within these categories there are examples of boys achieving higher in discreet subject areas, for example mathematics at GCSE level. In the 2010/11 academic year, 61.9% of girls achieved 5 or more A*-C grades at GCSE or equivalent level including mathematics and english, as compared with 54.6 per cent of boys.67 At A level, the pass level for 2 or 3 A-levels are more similar (95.6% girls, 93.9% boys and 12.7% girls, 12.8% boys) but the average total points achieved by female students as compared to males still shows a significant gap of 31.4 (759.5 compared to 728.1 for males).68 Beyond school level, young women are more likely than A MAN’S WORTH | 41

their male counterparts to be accepted at university, and to achieve a 2:1 degree.69 But importantly, while the gender gap is significant, it is not as wide as the gap in attainment between social classes. In 2009/10 the proportion of A-level candidates who achieved three or more A* or A grades was three times higher in independent schools than in state-funded schools (31.4 per cent compared with 10.6 per cent).

70 At Key Stage 4, students eligible for free school meals (a common measure of social deprivation) are almost twice as likely to not achieve basic standards in literacy and numeracy as their peers.71 Moving up to GCSE level, 16% of these students will not obtain five or more GCSEs based on current metrics.

As Richard Teese et al note, ‘the real question is not whether girls as a group or boys as a group are more disadvantaged but which girls and which boys’.72 It is important to note that the gender gap is larger among students eligible for free school meals, by some way, than among those not eligible. When attainment scores based on gender and ethnicity are combined with social class, white British boys eligible for school meals have the highest likelihood of not achieving basic standards in literacy and numeracy at 19%, which is the highest level of any combination of ethnicity, gender, and social class.73 This suggests that class, ethnicity, and gender are intersecting to compound matters for boys who are already disadvantaged.

SOFT SKILLS DEVELOPMENT At the same time, the types of skills and capacities that are more desirable in the modern economy and most useful in protecting against adversity are less developed in boys than girls. Resilience, social and emotional skills, self-regulation and application – more generally known as soft skills – are traditionally ‘feminine’ attributes, and evidence shows that even in the earliest years, girls are quicker to develop these skills.74 Recent research into the development of these ‘non-cognitive’ skills 42 | A MAN’S WORTH

shows that they are in fact very closely connected to – and in many ways underpin – the ‘cognitive’ skills necessary for academic success.

Boys are more likely than girls to have special education needs and behavioural problems. Boys are proportionately more likely to be disengaged from the education system and more likely to be not in education, employment or training (NEET). In 2007/08 four in five of those permanently excluded from primary, secondary and special schools in England were boys. Most of the 70,000 or so pupils taught in pupil referral units after being excluded from mainstream schools were boys, aged 11 to 15.75 Conduct disorder – a behavioural and emotional disorder of childhood and adolescence – is also more likely to affect boys than girls (sources suggest that around 10% or boys will suffer from this disorder as compared to 2-5% of girls).76

GENDERED EXPECTATIONS Fuelling these statistics are the dominant forms of masculinity often being played out by male students at school, through acting out and being disruptive in class. Crucially, qualitative research with boys at school shows that those from deprived backgrounds are more likely to develop anti-school behaviours.77 There is a pervasive attitude that working hard or showing effort is emasculating, and often this attitude is perpetuated by the very role models – for example teachers and parents – that should be overturning these views. Preconceptions surrounding gender play an important but often hidden role in the structure and management of the classroom.78 While the majority of teachers are aware of the importance of avoiding reproducing gender stereotypes in their teaching, only a minority of teachers (16 per cent male and 14 per cent female) claim not to factor the gender of their pupils into their classroom management or teaching styles.79 Work by Harlen in 2004 and Elwood and Murphy in 2000 has revealed the different criteria by which teachers judge boys’ and girls’ educational attainment.80 Drawing on over 20 years worth of data, Harlen’s study showed that teachers tend to base judgements of boys’ academic ability on behaviour rather than academic performance.

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Because teachers elide bad behaviour with low academic capacity, boys are more likely than girls to be placed in lower streams in class, and to be entered for the lower grade bands at GCSE. Our qualitative research also demonstrated this trend. For example, there was great consensus among younger and older participants that girls and boys mature at different rates, with girls growing up more quickly than boys. Participants cited examples including boys’ greater disengagement at school, their lesser readiness to become parents compared with their female counterparts, their immaturity and lack of motivation to get a job after finishing school, and their tendency to hang around in groups and gangs based around juvenile concepts like local estate or school rivalries. More than being expressed as an attitude, boys’ immaturity or slower development seemed to be considered a matter of fact, put down to natural causes: ‘Girls are more mature when they leave school; girls have more aspiration when they leave school.”

Amy, 18 “Girls start off older in the head when they’re younger – and girls stop at a certain age and then lads surpass them.”

Matt, 18 “They do catch up eventually.”

Diane, 17 Underpinning contemporary attitudes about gender roles is a set of assumptions about how boys and girls develop, and their natural strengths and weaknesses. Often, these assumptions reinforce the reality of gender differences in attitudes and outcomes.

GENDER SOCIALISATION Our primary research showed that young men and women are growing up differently, prompted by the gendered expectations of 44 | A MAN’S WORTH

parents and other adults. Most young people consulted agreed that more was expected from young women than from young men, particularly in the context of domestic duties, such as caring for siblings, and contributing to household duties like cleaning and cooking. Others felt that young men could ‘get away’ with more than young women. In one example, a participant described how her mother was more protective of her brother than of her, allowing him to ‘smash up the house and make a mess’, when she would get in trouble for similar actions. Some young women felt that these greater expectations placed on girls lead to them growing up more quickly, and taking more responsibility: “[I have] lazy siblings and so [I do] all the work… lads ‘get away’ with so much more than girls do.”

“There is an expectation of woman/girls doing the housework and the dishes and therefore perhaps growing up faster than boys.”

“Some men are different though; some will take half the responsibility but there’s not many of them.”

Although biological difference between the male and female brain may account for some of boys’ greater vulnerability and longer development timeframe, environmental factors also play a significant role.81 In his ‘fragile male’ thesis, Sebastian Kraemer, Consultant child and adolescent psychologist at Whittington Hospital, notes the extent to which male newborn babies are consistently more vulnerable than their female counterparts, as evidenced through their higher mortality rates and greater reaction to maternal stress or drug abuse.

However, he suggests that parents’ gendered attitudes about their sons could be amplifying their ‘pre-existing biological disadvantage’.82 In other words, early developmental differences between boys and girls, for example boys being more likely to suffer from developmental disorders like reading delay, conduct disorder and hyperactivity, may be explained by differences in both biology and care.

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Social prejudice that assumes boys must be, or must be made to be, more resilient than girls perversely may lead to them becoming less resilient as a result of their harsher early upbringing and the detrimental impact this has on their level of secure attachment.

Kraemer calls this adding ‘social insult to biological injury’.83 In another example, although parents are more and more accepting and encouraging of girls engaging in boys’ games and toys – sports, building blocks, trucks – the same is not true the other way around.

Cross-gender play has become far more acceptable for girls (being a tomboy) but not for boys, for whom masculinity is still more consciously developed by parents. In one study, parents unanimously agreed that it was important for both girls and boys to develop social skills, yet over a third were uncertain or would definitely not buy their son a doll to encourage this development. Boys as young as age 3 are aware of this ambivalence, reporting that they knew their parents would be unhappy with them playing with a doll.84 But given that these approaches disadvantage boys at school, and ultimately throughout life, why are they so rarely questioned? The processes of early gender socialisation are hugely important in laying the foundations for children’s attitudes and aspirations as they grow up. In some cases, there is a clear relationship between this and harmful gendered outcomes – starting with the greater disengagement of boys at school.

Many boys from disadvantaged backgrounds opt out, gang up together, or act out in an attempt to react against their early gender socialisation, but this behaviour is symptomatic of wider problems: a loss of control leading to a loss of aspiration to succeed. In 2009 a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission on classroom disengagement in the UK highlighted the problems faced by white working-class boys – the group most likely to leave school at 16 – pointing out that academic underachievement by this group is compounded by a poverty of aspiration which outstrips that of individuals from all other ethnic groups.85

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THE POLICY RESPONSE AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE Unfortunately, the policy response to boys’ disengagement and developmental issues remains largely essentialist in its nature: boys need more male role models, and the ‘feminisation’ of the teaching profession is most frequently cited as a reason for why boys are ‘falling behind’. Similarly, a lack of father figures is cited as the primary reason for boys’ difficulties in the early years at home (for a fuller discussion on this see chapter 5, on parenting). Over the past couple of decades, the policy approach has been mired in the debate about the importance of male role models at home and at school, and male approaches to learning, when it should instead focus on providing good role models and supportive parents, and designing educational strategies that develop the skills and knowledge necessary and relevant in the twenty-first century.

Before the 1997 election, soon to be Education Minister David Blunkett commented on how there was a need to get over the belief that ‘it isn’t cool for boys to work’ and steps were taken on the assumption that the growth in ‘laddish’ behaviour was a consequence of the dearth of the male role model in primary schools. Mentoring schemes, taster courses and targets were set to encourage more men to work at primary school.86 By 2000, the current education minister, Estelle Morris, claimed that recruiting more male teachers in primary school could help tackle the long-term underachievement of boys: ‘We want to see more male applicants becoming primary school teachers as boys benefit from positive role models.’87 The debate about the important of male professionals in school extended to male professionals in childcare as well. In 2001 the DfES Department for Education and Skills set a target to increase the percentage of male childcare workers from 2 per cent to 8 per cent by 2004, but the efforts largely failed with the percentage remained stable at around 2 per cent.88 Ten years on, Nick Clegg has reasserted this belief: A MAN’S WORTH | 47

“I believe we need more men in childcare. Men currently make up just 2 per cent of the childcare workforce. That’s not good enough. We need a diverse range of providers, with a greater gender balance, surrounding children with a range of role models – different people to learn from and relate to.89” Whether it is childcare or teaching on the agenda, it seems that to children and young people themselves, the gender of their role model is not particularly important. Our primary research shows that young men and women – both in roles as students and parents – are not concerned with the gender of their teachers or carers. All participants agreed that the sex of their teacher had no relationship to how they felt about them, the quality of their teaching, and whether they were more or less likely to listen to them. Our evidence suggests that young people respond to teacher’s whom they respect for reasons apart from their gender: “It depends on reputation. If they can handle the previous class well then you will obey/respect them as well but if you saw others getting away with things then you do as well.”

Tom, 14 “You get away with what you can; if you see others obeying then you think something about this fella so you wouldn’t try and get away with it.”

Matt, 18 Academics have questioned the logic and evidence behind polices focused primarily on the gender of role models rather than on a holistic set of criteria around their suitability, achievement, and skills. They criticise the ‘moral panic’ in the media surrounding the lack of male teachers and role models as unfounded. Evidence suggests that schools with the lowest gender gap generally have high expectations of their students, a positive learning ethos, high high-quality teaching and classroom management and effective pupil tracking, rather than the closest ratio of male to female teachers.

Professor of Education at the University of Glasgow, Bruce 48 | A MAN’S WORTH

Carrington’s analysis, for example, found no evidence for role-model based recruitment drives: male teachers were not found to produce more positive attitudes in boys, and recruiting more men might be conducted at the expense of recruiting better female teachers. Instead, Carrington and his colleagues argue, efforts should be made to attract top quality teachers, irrespective of gender, and to train them well.90 Research from Finland found that, the gender of students’ teachers was irrelevant in discussions with young people about the quality of the teaching.91 Professor of Gender and Education at the University of Western Ontario , Wayne Martino argues that this widely held concern reflects deep anxieties about the status of culturally acceptable masculinity in the dominant culture and that the moral panic is a backlash against the perceived threat posed by women who have began to make ‘headway towards equality’.92 Despite the intense focus on male teachers in the current policy debate, even a publication from the (previously titled) Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) states that it is a ‘myth’ that boys prefer male teachers: For the majority of boys and girls, the teacher’s gender has no bearing on their preferences for a teacher. While males are under-represented at all phases of schooling, studies have shown that the vast majority of boys and girls prioritise a teacher’s individual ability as a teacher, and their level of care for their students, rather than a teacher’s gender.

There have also been many studies investigating potential correlations between teacher gender and pupil achievement, and most of these have found no relationship between matched pupil-teacher gender and pupil achievement.93 While there may well be a justification for increasing the number of men involved in teaching roles – on the grounds of gender equality at work, for example – the causal link between an increase in male teachers and a decrease in boys’ educational disengagement has never been established. A coherent strategy for supporting poor and working-class boys at school should instead focus on recruiting A MAN’S WORTH | 49

talented teachers of any sex, as well as training teachers to be aware of harmful gender stereotyping at school and how to combat it.

In 2008-09 by the Department for Children, Schools, and Families did launch a small enquiry into the causes of the gender attainment gap and potential for addressing it in a project called the Gender Agenda (as cited in the above excerpt). The Dept acknowledged that there was little evidence to support traditionally cited explanations for the gender gap, such as the ‘feminisation’ of curriculum and lack of male teachers. They identified two key areas that were more likely causes of the gap: the social construction of gender difference with the associated challenged of gender stereotyping (they cite the following studies: Francis and Skelton, 2008; Jackson, 2006; Francis 2000; Alloway et al 2002) and secondly, particulars around the design of literacy and English curriculum. But, in addressing these two areas in their publication Gender Agenda: Gender issues in school – What works to improve achievement for boys and girls, far more attention is paid to the latter, with only a few cursory suggestions for tackling gender stereotyping at school. There is little discussion of the highly influential role of parents in gender stereotyping and no recommendation on what can be done in the pre-school years.94

4. WORK Historically, waged work has been central to the construction of male identity: ‘man’ is nearly synonymous with being a breadwinner and a provider. Not to fulfil this role is to be emasculated. Gendered and classed notions of work continue to shape men’s and women’s job choices and career paths, leading to structural inequalities later.

The traditional jobs associated with working-class men in particular have disappeared through deindustrialisation or are being hit hard by the current recession. The welfare state has propped up those without work, but cycles of dependency have taken root, undermining personal responsibility, control, and aspiration. In some communities, where worklessness has become intergenerational, new norms have 50 | A MAN’S WORTH

become embedded: a sense of aspiration and of responsibility to work is being lost.

GENDER EQUALITY AT WORK While huge amounts of progress have been made, gender equality at work has not yet been achieved business. Today there is a general consensus, with some exceptions, that anyone can do any job and that there should be no gendered restrictions on who does what. The young men we spoke to supported this concept in theory, perhaps demonstrating a generational difference between older and younger generations in their belief in strict gendered divisions of labour.

“There’s no such thing as a man’s job or a woman’s job.”

Tom, 14 “Everyone should be in the middle.”

Charlie, 14 Recent structural change resulting in increased opportunities for women in the workplace has been recognised as a good thing: “ I have a granddaughter who is an aircraft fitter, servicing the Jaguar fighters; she’s just come back from Afghanistan; she’s 19 years of age. What a horizon that kid’s got.”

Al, member of older resident’s community group “Years ago, my mother was a school teacher and when she got married she wasn’t allowed to keep her job, she had to finish work… she wasn’t welcome in the profession because she had got married and that was it. Nowadays it would be illegal to have prejudice against women and to withhold their opportunities.”

Jon, member of older resident’s community group But despite the huge influx of women into the work force over recent decades, work is still, overall, very gendered. Traditional conceptions A MAN’S WORTH | 51

of ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ jobs are still almost universally recognised, and often this is reflected and supported by what people see in reality: “People’s attitudes towards gender roles have clearly changed, but their behaviour lags behind. This is important.95” Professor Rosemary Crompton So despite an ideal of gender equality at work, caring jobs such as parenting, teaching, nursing, and so on are associated with women, and the reality supports this view: “Everyone who works in the crèche is a woman.”

Morgan, 16 Women are over-represented in caring and teaching professions, and in some cases this disparity is increasing. A study by Olwen McNamara and her colleagues at Manchester University in 2008 found that: women made up 58 per cent of secondary school teachers in 2005, compared with 54 per cent in 1997.96 The proportion of women teachers in nursery and primary education remained static at 88 per cent between 1997 and 2005.

Jobs that might involve physical strength, leadership, or shows of authority are more associated with men. For example: “A police officer is more of a man’s job. They can do more and are more assertive, ; they have a stricter approach.”

Tracey, 17 “They say that the only jobs they have got are for men – mechanics, engineering, building… how do you know I’m not qualified?”

Jackie, 17 Men make up the majority of construction workers and engineers.

Although 57 per cent of applicants and acceptances to medical school are women, they make up only 40 per cent of doctors, 42 per cent 52 | A MAN’S WORTH

of GPs, and 28 per cent of consultants.97 Just 8.5 per cent of women teachers with between five and nine years’ experience are in leadership roles, compared with 20 per cent of men. So despite shifting attitudes towards gender and jobs, traditional conceptions of gendered work remain, contributing to inequalities such as the gendered pay gap.

ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS FOR WORK The centrality of work to the lives of many men means that the loss of ‘cultural certainty’ associated with unemployment may be more damaging to men than women.98 Many commentators and analysts have pointed out that men display less resilience in dealing with unemployment and economic insecurity than women: suicide rates increased by 6 per cent during the recent recession, with three times as many men as women taking their own lives.99 The mental health charity Mind has found that up to one in seven recently unemployed men will develop a depressive illness within six months, and twothirds of men aged under 35 were out of work at the time of their suicide.100 It is possible, too, that the still relatively recent expansion of opportunities for women, and the framework of legislation that has been developed to protect their rights and broaden their opportunities further, is a source of support and motivation for women, too.

“Girls are the ones looking for and getting the jobs.”

Amy, 18 On the other hand, women are just another form of competition for many young men: “Girls have more opportunities to do things, to go to university, than they used to… in our day we couldn’t do that and I think that has been a threat to the boys… boys are not just competing with boys for jobs, they’re competing with girls. Our eldest grandson is a captain in the army in Afghanistan, and his fiancée A MAN’S WORTH | 53

is too. They can [both] climb the ladder; they can do what they want to do.”

Elspeth, member of older resident’s community group

WORK AND CLASS The more general shift to a service-based economy has hit poor and working-class men particularly hard, leading to new forms of interaction in many workplaces that are contrary to traditional conceptions of men’s work. Working-class conceptions of work as being ‘blue collar’, ‘manual labour’, ‘industrial’ rather than ‘office-based’ are heavily embedded in British society. Many of the industries that sustained working-class areas in the past have shrunk or disappeared as the UK went through an intense period of deindustrialisation. In some areas of the country there was a sustained period of instability in between the collapse of one economy and the emergence of a new, service-based economy, and a legacy of worklessness and lack of aspiration that has followed: “We used to have a big industry… We used to have hundreds of men going up and down [the roads to and from the factories].”

Margaret, member of older resident’s community group Cultural analyst Anoop Nayak has written extensively about the effects of deindustrialisation on society, concluding that white, working-class men have been mostly heavily, and most negatively, impacted: “For young white working class men, residing in the Western hemisphere, the transition to manhood was once inextricably linked to the movement from school to work… However as our industrial and manufacturing industry declined the labour market has shifted towards more casual forms of work: part-time, fixed-term contracts and flexible employment that is often poorly paid. Young men were increasingly less likely to be ‘learning to labour’ [but rather] ‘learning to serve’.101” But as labour market expert Linda McDowall says: 54 | A MAN’S WORTH

“Older forms of acceptable ‘macho’ behaviour among workingclass men that used to be a key feature of male manual employment are now a positive disadvantage in the labour market, where self-presentation, punctuality, attitude, and demeanour to customers and superiors are increasingly important attributes.102” Unemployment affecting working-class young men, and their vulnerability in dealing with it, is in part due to a mismatch of skills, but this mismatch is symptomatic of a broader problem: outdated concepts of masculinity that are not relevant or helpful in a modern service and knowledge economy.

WORK AND CARE Parallel to this, women’s increasing presence in the workplace has prompted employers and policy makers to find new solutions for women to balance formal employment with family responsibilities.

The concept of the family wage – paid to a man to sustain a whole family – has become a thing of the past. Today, most parent-couples both work. This shift has disrupted clear divisions of labour between men and women, with different outcomes for both groups. In many cases, women are struggling with the ‘double shift’ of formal work and informal caring and domestic duties. For example, the 2008 British Social Attitudes survey finds that nearly eight in ten people (77 per cent) with partners report the woman usually or always does the laundry, and this figure has only come down from 81 per cent in 1994.103 But the flipside of these figures is women’s increased independence and their unrivalled position as being in charge of home life and children. As woman take their place alongside men in formal employment, men’s failure to become more involved in caring and domestic duties is ultimately undermining them.

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THE POLICY RESPONSE AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE In trying to address the consequences that labour market change has had on young and working-class men, policies often end up reinforcing traditional gendered and classed work patterns, in attempts to re-establish an equilibrium. But this backward looking approach is unhelpful and unrealistic. Instead, progressive routes forward towards gender equality at work, and consequently at home, should be embraced.

Balancing work and care

To help families to balance work and caring responsibilities, policy makers provide support for childcare, flexible working, parental leave, and so on. But it is clear that these steps – while progressive – are supporting and being taken up by women far more than men.104 Paternity leave remains a fraction of that of maternity leave. The Coalition’s recent proposals for extending paternity leave, introducing a ‘use it or lose it’ element, and increasing transferable leave between parents should be welcomed, but fathers are unlikely to take leave unless it is well paid: Of the 45 per cent of fathers who don’t take paternity leave, 88 per cent say they would like to, with 49 per cent saying they could not afford it and an additional 19 per cent saying they felt their employer would not want them to take it.105 Fewer men than women request to work flexibly, and fewer have their requests accepted. Men are also less successful when taking cases to tribunals with male claimants accounting for 27 per cent of flexible work claims but 45 per cent of those that were rejected.106 Many men’s experience of the workplace still conforms to traditional ideas about men as primary breadwinners and as secondary carers. In the majority of organisations full-time, inflexible hours continue to be the norm for men. The structure and set up of the working world plays a big part in perpetuating traditional gender roles and making shared parenting a challenge for most couples.

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Responding to deindustrialisation

The policy response to deindustrialisation and the resulting impact on young working-class men have in some ways further entrenched gendered and classed stereotypes of work. For example, in 2006/07, of the total number of people beginning an apprenticeship, 54 per cent were men, with 46 per cent women. However, within this, 70 per cent of advanced-level apprenticeship places were filled by men, and this gap has been recognised by the Equal Opportunities Commission and Government-sponsored Women and Work Commission.107 Perhaps more important is the gender segregation of apprenticeship areas, with men far more prevalent in the higher paid sectors. Male apprentices dominate in sectors including construction (99%), engineering (97%), and vehicle maintenance (99%). When exploring traditionally female apprenticeship areas, we see the reverse trend with only 3 per cent of male apprentices in children’s care, learning and development and 8 per cent in hairdressing.108 Moreover, as the service sector continues to grow, there is limited potential in redeveloping the UK’s manufacturing past. George Osborne’s short lived ‘march of the makers’ strategy had very limited success in 2011, as expansion in the manufacturing market has taken a solid turn towards contraction as the recession continues.109 We should be progressive about people’s potential to adapt to different labour markets and support them to take on new opportunities, rather than try to recreate a manufacturing sector suitable to traditional notions of working-class masculinity. As Linda McDowall says: “Deference and docility are highly valued skills in the bottom-end service sector jobs that may be the only employment options available to working- class men in former industrial areas, and yet it seems that male socialisation in schools and in localities continues to emphasise traditional male ways of doing things, increasingly excluding young men from the only labour-market opportunities that are open to them.110”

Making work pay

“I don’t want to appear cynical, but a guy I went to school A MAN’S WORTH | 57

with never got a job. Now his son has never got a job, now his grandson has never got a job. And that is what is happening now; and I’m not saying it’s happening a lot, but young people now are relying on what the government is handing out to them… And I’m not saying that all young people are doing this but I think it’s become a way of life for some people.”

Jack, member of older residents’ community group Breaking cycles of dependency that are set in place through structural unemployment, changing norms in relation to work and desert, and changes to the welfare state have been at the heart of the policy response to worklessness and unemployment for some time. In an overall of Government strategy in 2011, the Coalition Government took a hard line on unemployment benefits like jobseeker’s allowance and employment support allowance, introducing their Welfareto-work programme, with the aim of shifting millions who are on benefits back into work. A payment by results mechanism, where companies are paid according to how many people they can place in jobs, has put a new emphasis on outcomes.111 But despite a wealth of statistical evidence about the persistence of worklessness in certain geographical areas, causal explanations remain elusive. A report by the Social Exclusion Unit in 2004 sought to debunk the common notion that communities with high levels of worklessness function on a different value scale, within which unemployment has lost its social stigma. Instead the report highlighted the fact that individuals within workless communities often manifest high levels of social isolation, with social networks playing a minimal and largely unimportant role.112 It also cited lack of qualifications as being a major factor in increasing the likelihood of being unemployed, commenting: “Almost half the working-age population in these areas have no qualifications; half of all households have at least one person with a limiting long-term illness and one-third of people providing unpaid adult care do so for over 50 hours a week.113” Recent research has shown that workless communities are often 58 | A MAN’S WORTH

characterised by the presence of certain demographic groups. A report

by Ritchie, Casebourne and Rick for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) listed these groups as follows: lone parents, minority ethnic groups, disabled people, carers, older workers, those working in the informal economy and offenders and ex-offenders.114 These groups are often subject to multiple disadvantages in the job market: discrimination from employers for their existing situation is combined with a lack of infrastructure that would allow them to juggle these existing commitments with employment successfully.

For example, the report by the DWP points out that people in low-income households have suffered disproportionately from the deregulation of the bus system in 1985.115 In Salford, there has been a 33 per cent hike in bus fares and the termination of unprofitable routes has contributed to worklessness. Lack of transport in the city has led to local workers being excluded from finding employment at a new retail complex in the area, because it is inaccessible for those without a car.116 Another, related factor in perpetuating unemployment is ‘spatial mismatch’, where the location of affordable housing – and particularly social housing – at the edge of cities has left people geographically isolated from the job market. This particularly affects single parents or individuals with caring duties, since they lack the time to commute long distances into cities or to isolated industrial estates.

But low-pay and caring duties often push even those in work into difficult positions. Young people in our qualitative research were acutely aware of the challenges they faced between the welfare state and the labour market: “16 hours [a week] and under, you still get your benefits. But more than 18, you lose your benefits.”

Diane, 17 “If you’re on jobseeker’s [allowance], you can’t do work on the side; they will take it off you.”

Ben, 20 A MAN’S WORTH | 59

“It’s harder for girls to get a job [if you’ve] got kids; better being on the dole as you get more money. Impossible to [pay for the kids] if you have a job. Unless you get paid loads of money it just doesn’t work.”

Janet, 19 The proportion of children living in working but poor households has risen from 50 per cent in 2005/06 to 61 per cent in 2008/09, fuelled by the recession and the UK’s increasingly flexible labour market (comprising part-time, temporary workers who have few benefits).117 While child poverty fell by 0.8 per cent in 2008/09, this reduction occurred entirely in workless households receiving benefits. The level of in-work household child poverty remains unchanged and has led to the current situation, where the number of households in in-work poverty exceeds that of workless families in poverty by around 50 per cent.118 There is also new evidence showing that wages are increasing at an annual rate of just 1.8 per cent, or around half the rate of inflation as it currently stands, which is pushing many people further into poverty.119 The Government needs a policy that doesn’t simply aim to move people off benefits or reduce benefits as a means of getting people into sustainable jobs. In a time of high unemployment, people seeking work should be encouraged to get involved in meaningful activities like volunteering or internships, without fear of losing their benefits. For work to pay a living wage it is necessary to address the growing gap in equality between rich and poor. In the UK, the bottom 50 per cent of the population owns only 1 per cent of the wealth, with the wealthiest 20 per cent owning 84 per cent. The 10 per cent highest earning households own over 100 times the wealth of the bottom 10 per cent.120

5. PARENTING In this section we explore how, despite a huge amount of change to family structures and family life over recent generations, traditional conceptions of ‘fatherhood’ and the role of fathers as limited to 60 | A MAN’S WORTH

‘financial provider’ are still present in people’s attitudes, and the current policy approach to engaging fathers. Many working-class young women find the concept of ‘mother’ is strong, and positive – becoming a mother is something to aspire to, be proud of, and take responsibility for; but many working-class young men find fatherhood remains is a vague prospect, something they are perpetually underprepared for. This is in part because they have so few examples to model themselves on and in part because traditional conceptions of fatherhood are not relevant to their lives. Moreover, the policy approach to fathers can be marginalising and further discourage their engagement – though it is important to note that this is often to protect families from violence and conflict instigated by fathers. While many young men do take responsibility and are excellent parents, fatherhood is neither an expectation nor aspiration for others.

THE ROLE OF FATHERS In general, today’s fathers are playing an increasing role in their children’s lives yet men are still taking on a fraction of childcare and housekeeping responsibilities compared with women. The idea that a man can be the primary carer is still far from mainstream and the assumption that children are, and should be, raised by their mum is still pervasive: “A woman would be a better full-time parent than a man.”

Ryan, 20 “It’s just the woman’s job; not thinking of this in a sexist way – just think – a full-time ma would be better than a dad, ; mothers have the baby and mother bond thing.”

Sean, 21 “Making money is the be all and end all of a dad’s role.”

Matt, 18 “Dad should be putting food on the table.”

Brett, 20 A MAN’S WORTH | 61

“Dad’s gotta go and do the work. A dad’s gotta do something to contribute. Ma’s at home with the children.”

Sean, 21 But many of the young men found it difficult to articulate what the role of a father should be. This was often because they lacked any experience of father figures in their lives – many had never known their father. Instead, it was their mother’s whom they looked up to: “Ma’s been like both a ma and dad.”

Ben, 20 “A dad’s like a mate, just one of the lads. He’s never disciplined me early on. When my ma says to do something, I just do it instantly. When my dad does, I just laugh.”

Andrew, 21 “A dad’s like a mate, just one of the lads.”

Nathan, 20 “Dad was not around, so mum had to play both good and bad cop.”

Kevin, 19

GOOD FATHERS OR GOOD PARENTS? There is a wealth of evidence pointing to the positive effect on outcomes of fathers being involved in their children’s lives: fathers’ interest in their children’s education correlates with better educational attainment;121 high levels of fathers’ support for mothers has been shown topromote breastfeeding;122 research has shown that a fathers’ involvement in a child’s life correlates with the child experiencing fewer emotional and behavioural problems should the parents’ relationship break down: it helps develop resilience.123 Research has also shown that adolescents with a strong paternal 62 | A MAN’S WORTH

bond are less likely to be involved in petty crime. A longitudinal study found that when fathers were involved with their children before the age of 11, the children were more likely to escape having a criminal record by the age of 21.124 The importance of fathers may be particularly important for young boys: Jo Blanden from the University of Surrey has shown that having a father who shows little or no interest in their son’s education reduces the child’s chances of moving out of poverty as an adult by 25 percentage points.125 But there are criticisms of this approach to valuing fathers, and claims that they appeal to ‘essentialised’ notions about the type of parenting that men and woman can provide. Crucially, much of the evidence on the benefits of engaged fathers cannot differentiate between the benefit that comes from fathers being male and from fathers being supportive second parents in a family. What little evidence there is from alternative family forms, for example lesbian-parented families, suggests that the sex of the parent does not matter in the way we might think. In fact, a longitudinal study of children born to lesbian parents in the USA shows that they scored higher than their peers on academic measures and psychological development measures including self-esteem and confidence, and lower on behavioural problems, including rule-breaking and aggression.126 Writer and policy analyst on men’s issues, Sandy Ruxton, argues that the calls for more ‘male role models’ for boys often stem from traditional and outdated notions of masculinity: ‘What is needed instead is a more fundamental renegotiation of men’s roles and relationships.’127 This might involve viewing fathers primarily as parents rather than as male role models. Many young people we spoke to highlighted the importance of fathers as simply someone to share the load with mothers, as opposed to fulfilling a set of entirely unique roles and responsibilities: “Asking mums to take on two roles is too much. I think it’s easier on everyone it there’s a man around too.”

Andrew, 21

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Furthermore, the idea that we are experiencing a dearth of engaged fathers today and that this is responsible for young men’s ‘crisis’ has also been questioned. A report from the British Academy analysing the history of families and policy in the UK counters such claims, asserting that an absence of male role models from family life is not a new phenomenon: lower life expectancy and war before the 1950s resulted in large numbers of families headed by lone mothers and boys lacking male role models.128 The report even goes so far as to argue that the period from 1945– to 1970, with its high rates of marriage among men and women bringing up children, was not ‘the norm’, but an exception. That children are being brought up in single families doesn’t necessarily mean that there are no men around, and in many single parent families, fathers or mothers still have good, stable contact with their children.

ASPIRATIONS FOR PARENTING Young male and female fieldwork participants had vastly different attitudes and aspirations towards being parents, despite being of similar age. The majority of young women were either mothers themselves or had close friends who were mothers. However, few if any were still in relationships with the father. These women aspired to becoming a mother and being a mother is a role in which they take pride and responsibility. Many of the young girls who had children saw the process as integral to their growing up, maturing and becoming an adult: “Having kids was important for becoming an adult.”

Janet, 19 “Everyone underestimates having a baby. They just assume it’s easy.”

Diane, 17 “I grew up when I had her.”

Alison, 17 64 | A MAN’S WORTH

Research suggests that far from being a disaster ruining young people’s lives, parenthood can be positive and often improves lives.129 Few teenage mothers regret early childbirth, and point to the difference between unplanned and unwanted pregnancy. Many mothers describe how motherhood has ‘made them feel stronger, more competent, more connected to family and society, and more responsible. Resilience in the face of constraints and stigma, based on a belief in the moral worth of being a mother, is one overriding theme.’130 Most well-executed quantitative research also suggests that it is not the age element of the parenthood that leads to poorer outcomes, but the already present social and economic disadvantage of most young parents as well as the quality of support structures in place.131 Never the less, there is a general perception among the public that teenage parenthood is a negative phenomenon, and that it is on the rise: a recent poll showed that 81 per cent of people felt it was increasing.

Figures actually show there has been a substantial decline in teenage parenthood: in 2007, only 11.4 per cent conceptions and 6.4 per cent births were to women under 20.132 The real change is that previously, pregnancy would lead to shotgun or forced marriages, with high levels of subsequent breakdown, whereas today many couples are simply sidestepping marriage.

But what remains unchanged is young fathers’ secondary role in parenthood, their avoidance of taking on the responsibilities of (early) parenthood and the delayed effect that this is often having on young men’s maturation and willingness to contribute.

IMMATURE FATHERS And yet parenthood, particularly young parenthood, seems to be a phenomenon experienced by young women, not young men. Despite being of similar ages to the young women, none of the young men we spoke to had children and few felt that they were currently ready to be a father. There were a number of reasons why. Some seemed to stem from a personal feeling that they were not ready to take on the responsibility A MAN’S WORTH | 65

of being a father, despite aspirations for being a father in the future: “Can’t be a dad – I’m not ready.”

Sean, 21 “I would like to be a dad… one day.” Brett, 20 It also stemmed from the perception that the role of a father is to provide and the knowledge that they would be unable to fulfill this role because they were unemployed: “There’s no money to support kids yet.”

Ryan, 20 “Need a job before having a kid – dad should be putting food on the table.”

Matt, 18 So although these young men clearly aspired to be fathers in the future, many do not feel ready to become fathers, despite their female peers having already become parents.

THE POLICY APPROACH AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE There has been a significant expansion in the policy focus on fatherhood in the UK over the past few years, yet there still exists a range of barriers to fathers being more engaged in family life. The particular situation of young parents, with the higher levels of poverty and single motherhood and absent fathers that accompany this demographic, requires specific attention. It is here where the lack of a responsible, committed second parent or father will make the most difference to children’s and mothers’ lives. And it is among members of this group of young men where outdated concepts of fatherhood and masculinity are proving most damaging.

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Engaging fathers in parenting support services

A recent review commissioned by the DCSF to investigate how national policy could better support fathers found that ‘virtually all local authorities and family services reported thatengagement with fathers was substantially lower than with mothers’.133 The Fatherhood Institute, has argued that men are often marginalised or made to feel uncomfortable by services and that health visitors have often never met or even known about the existence of fathers.134 Research points to the difficulty that fathers have in engaging in their children’s health and education: only 61 per cent of fathers consistently attended ante-natal classes and 36 per cent were regularly taking their children to or from school. More than half of the fathers surveyed said that they rarely, sometimes or never took part in home visits by health visitors and 75 per cent said that they wanted more information about their children that is relevant to dads and not just to mums.135 Similar concerns were voiced in a survey by the Family and Parenting Institute, which found that a common complaint from parents was that health visitors did not pay enough attention to fathers.136

The problem of domestic violence

Often support services for parents have to balance dual priorities of protecting mothers and children as well as involving fathers.

Approximately 46,700 children in the UK are known to be at risk of abuse right now. One in four young adults (25.3 per cent) was severely maltreated during childhood. An NSPCC report on the maltreatment of children found that fathers were consistently less likely than mothers to be seen to offer closeness and support and be good role models. One in five of the young people who took part in the study said that they were ‘sometimes really afraid’ of their fathers.137 The study also found evidence of a social class dimension to maltreatment: respondents in social grades D and E were more likely than those in other social grades to be rated as seriously physically abused, and to rate themselves as abused.138 Many people associate fathers with violence and the threat of violence and this is sometimes borne out in reality: “If there’s no dad there, there’s no real discipline.”

Charlie, 14 A MAN’S WORTH | 67

“You do listen to your mum and do things that she asks. But the difference with a man is there’s a fear factor… if he’s a hard nut, you won’t disobey him.”

Tom, 14 “Worst you’ll get from ma is a slap, but from dad, he’ll beat you up.”

Kevin, 19 The choice of some men to use violence and aggression to deal with conflict undermines all men’s status in their families and in society, and contributes further to fathers’ marginalisation.

Regressive policies for young fathers

Concerns about the lack engagement of fathers and policies attempting to help fathers take a greater role in their children’s upbringing have been high on the Coalition Government’s agenda.

Frank Field’s review of poverty and life chances received a large number of submissions calling for children’s services to become more father-friendly. Yet the final report, The Foundation Years: Preventing poor children from becoming poor adults, argued that the Government has forgotten that the primary duty in safeguarding children is to force father’s to meet their financial responsibilities.139 Frank Field separately suggested that the debate around welfare reform must shift from focusing on unemployed mothers to and instead concentrate on unemployed fathers, and that men who refuse to take jobs offered by the government should have their benefits cut.

While putting more pressure on young men to take responsibility for their role as a parent is important, Field’s approach of reinstating outdated conceptions of fatherhood is unhelpful. If the primary influence behind family welfare reform is to force fathers to meet their financial responsibilities, fathers will increasingly feel marginalised and that they have only one, financial function. This critique is supported by many fathers’ groups; for example, the Fatherhood Institute labelled Field’s recommendations as out of date and inaccurate, and argues instead that policy should be designed to help support fathers 68 | A MAN’S WORTH

to engage in family life.140 It also contradicts the more progressive approaches that the Government is beginning to take up in policy areas around flexible work and shared parenting: increasing allowances for paternity leave and extending the ability to work flexibly to all.

These policies support fathers’ roles as carer as well as provider. Good policies to engage fathers – and young fathers in particular – will focus on increasing responsibility among them, but also on challenging outdated notions about fathers as purely breadwinners.

6. RELATIONSHIPS Women’s increased freedom and power, along with societal trends towards individualism, have shifted power balances in relationships and changed their shape, making them both happier and safer, but also more fragile. In poor and working-class groups, many young men and women value commitment in their lives; they are sceptical of the ability of formal statuses such as marriage to ensure strong and happy relationships. Although overall, women remain the financial losers from relationship breakdowns, they have historically been more likely to instigate break ups and divorces, and tend to be less satisfied in relationships. Young mothers in particular are more likely to choose to go it alone rather than to deal with the difficulties of managing conflicting couple relationships with their partners. And in the aftermath of a relationship breakdown it is men’s wellbeing and mental health that is more likely to suffer, leading to higher levels of mental ill health and social isolation.141 Outdated stereotypes about men as independent, unemotional, powerful and aggressive – even violent – shape many young men’s responses to conflict and relationship breakdown, contributing to a range of harmful outcomes for men and women.

ASPIRATIONS FOR MARRIAGE The debate about the benefits of marriage is predicated on its likelihood A MAN’S WORTH | 69

to provide stability to relationships. In this context, people’s diminishing aspiration for marriage (particularly among poor and white groups in society) is seen as a negative social trend. The high instance of relationship breakdown and single parents in many deprived areas of the country means that marriage is not something that many young people aspire to: “I wouldn’t get married because of the bad experience of my mum and dad.”

Kirsty, 19 Young women in particular associated marriage with undesirable feelings of ownership and a lack of freedom: “I couldn’t get married. I would feel trapped and feel like I was owned by someone.”

Lisa, 18 “I don’t like the idea of being a ‘wife’, it feels like you are trapped, or like a slave” Deanne, 17 For many others marriage seemed to involve a pointless cost, and was something which they don’t have the money for anyway: “It’s too expensive to get married.”

Andrew, 21 “It’s just a thing on a piece of paper; it’s a waste of money.”

Amy, 18 In 2011 the average cost of a wedding in the UK stands at around £20,000, with many couples spending many times that amount. The baseline costs of marriage are actually relatively low, with the cost of meeting the legal requirements – giving notice before registering a marriage, and registering a marriage at a register office – being less than £100.142 However, the media hype surrounding the perceived 70 | A MAN’S WORTH

costs of marriage, and cultural expectations about what a wedding will involve, has led many couples to dismiss marriage on financial grounds. In 2009 an Ipsos MORI poll showed that 30 per cent of cohabiting couples cited finances as a reason not for marrying.143 The last Millennium Cohort Study revealed a similar trend, with 55 per cent of children born to single parents and 43 per cent of children born to cohabiting parents living in disadvantaged areas, while 68 per cent of children born to married parents lived in more affluent areas.144 Others are put off getting married less by the cost of a marriage than by the cost of what they saw as an inevitable divorce: Marriage [is] I a bigger commitment and much harder if you fall out of love and you then have to get divorced… it cost my friend loads of money.

Tracey, 17 The cost of getting a divorce in the UK starts from about from £850 (plus VAT and court fees of around £350),145 with the average proceedings costing £13,000 if it goes to court.146 The personal costs of relationship breakdown on mental health and wellbeing are also well documented. Importantly, new evidence is beginning to show that relationship breakdown has a greater negative impact on the emotional wellbeing of young men than young women: Young men are more reactive to the quality of ongoing relationships… support and strain in an ongoing relationship are more closely associated with men’s than women’s emotional well-being.147 A growing body of research is also showing the transfer of negative impact that relationship conflict has on parental effectiveness and children’s wellbeing and development.148 These personal effects of relationship breakdown are incurred regardless of formal relationship status.

In the research base, also, the most compelling evidence about relationship stability shows that it is relationship quality as opposed A MAN’S WORTH | 71

to structure that helps to predict stability. For example, while divorce consistently has a negative impact on children’s behavioural problems in the family, children whose parents remain in high conflict relationships have even worse behavioural outcomes.149 Similar studies show that single parents can function more effectively as a parenting unit than two parents experiencing high levels of conflict.150 These findings were endorsed by many of the young men and women we spoke to, who grew up in unstable families where the labels for the formal relationship that their parents were in had little bearing on the quality of their relationships at home.

ASPIRATIONS FOR COMMITMENT Despite their negative views about marriage, young men and women had very positive attitudes about commitment, talking freely and openly about its importance in their lives. Young people clearly valued the relationships in their lives and the importance of commitment to those around them: to their family members, partners and friends, and to their own personal development and wellbeing. On further discussion, it became increasingly apparent that marriage was ultimately dismissed as a viable relationship option because it was seen as a false, or defunct, form of commitment: “No point getting married coz of cheating.”

Kevin, 19 When asked whether she would ever get married one young woman replied: “No! Why do you have to put a ring on the finger to show commitment? A ring doesn’t mean he won’t cheat on you.”

Diane, 17 Young women in particular associated getting engaged with love and commitment, and being a positive statement of commitment that they would like to make one day, but felt that the next step of marriage was 72 | A MAN’S WORTH

too much of a risk: “I’d probably say yes to get[ting] engaged to be nice; but I wouldn’t mean [to get married].”

Alison, 17 “Engagement is a commitment that people love each other. But the day you get married, it changes.”

Molly, 22

COMMITMENT MYTHS Both younger and older residents had complex and ambivalent attitudes towards commitment. In the case of members of older generations, their views were shaped by how they had seen marriage and relationship norms change over the course of their lives. On the one hand, they recognise the benefits that women’s increased freedom and employment opportunities have brought to relationships: “I think the role of a man has changed completely.”

Edward, member of older resident’s’ community group “When you look [back to] when we were married, which is over 60 years now, John had a job that he worked 5.5 days of the week. He didn’t do any shopping because I was home with the kids, so I did the shopping on the weekends. Saturday afternoon, I’m looking at my son and daughter in law, he’s 60 this May; their lifestyle, they are both working, and one would do the cooking one day and the other would do it the next.”

Edna, member of older resident’s community group However, they felt that women’s increased independence resulted in there being less pressure on couples to sort out their problems because it became much easier to get out of bad relationships if they were proving difficult. They felt that this shift has had a negative impact on family life. There was a clear tension among participants between the A MAN’S WORTH | 73

ideal of freedom and equality on one hand, and interdependence and personal responsibility on the other: “One of the biggest differences I have seen is that in the old days, people said if we had trouble with our husbands, we had to stay with them, because there was no where else to go. Nowadays, they don’t have to because there’s that freedom for men or for women to push the men out of their lives.”

Elspeth, member of older resident’s community group And the evidence suggests that, in most cases, it is indeed women who are pushing men out of their lives. For example, findings from Understanding Society, the household panel study run by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex, showed that an individual’s satisfaction with their relationships declines with the duration of the relationship and age. But, crucially, women’s happiness declines much more steeply than that of men.151 In cases where relationship dissatisfaction or conflict eventually leads to breakdown or divorce, it is women who are more likely to end things.

Recent statistics published by the ONS, show that 67 per cent of the divorces granted in 2009 were granted to women.152 But despite the obvious benefits of being able to leave violent or conflicting relationships, most participants felt that this change arising from women’s greater independence was shift was negative overall.

The sense that structural change was eroding personal commitment and responsibility was shared beyond the example of couple relationships too. While the growth of public services was recognised as a good thing, many participants felt that the erosion of community interaction and interdependence was a direct outcome of this: “One [change] is there weren’t the services available to go to for help so you had to resolve differences by speaking to the people you were concerned with and that led to ad hoc clearances of whatever had gone wrong.”

Jon, member of older resident’s community group 74 | A MAN’S WORTH

THE POLICY APPROACH AND WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE Aspirations towards commitment and relationships are shaped by many factors, personal and political. For example, key factors like poverty, place and one’s parents’ experiences are shaping young men’s and women’s attitudes towards commitment and aspiration to marriage. Additionally, ‘myths’ of a time of idealised relationship commitment in the past cover up difficult compromises limiting people’s (and especially women’s) freedom and safety. The state, also, plays a big – if perhaps less immediately obvious – role in implicitly supporting certain types of relationships and disapproving of others, as well as providing different forms of incentives and disincentives both financial and social. Understanding the ways that young men’s and women’s aspirations towards relationships are shaped is key to designing a policy approach that supports commitment and interdependence, whatever form it comes in.

Stopping domestic violence in couple relationships

One incident of adult domestic violence is reported to the police every minute, and one in four women can expect to be a victim of domestic violence at some point in their lives.153 The Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS) has found that domestic violence is involved in 75 per cent of public law cases, and 65 per cent of private law cases.154 Importantly, men who experience greater levels of violence or threats of violence in other parts of their lives (through gang-related violence, or fear of violence in their communities) are more likely to commit domestic violence in their homes. As Connell states: “Violence, sexual or otherwise, is not the unusual behaviour of a few ‘odd’ individuals, neither is it an expression of overwhelming biological urges: it is a product of the social world in which we live.155” Increasing levels of investment and innovation in the criminal justice sector has led to domestic violence prosecution rates rising from 46 A MAN’S WORTH | 75

per cent to 69 per cent between 2003 and 2007, and these efforts should be applauded.156 However, only a minority of victims uses the criminal justice system, and there has been far less investment in prevention services. An equally successful approach to prevention would need to focus on the social origins of violence, and the ways male violence is used in specific ways to enforce or establish gender inequalities, or to assert marginalised masculinity against other men.157

Outdated approach to couple relationships

The Government’s approach to relationships has previously been centred on increasing marriage rates and reducing relationship breakdown, although in a u-turn in the 2012 budget, the centre-piece for this policy – tax breaks for married couples – has been axed. This move is to be applauded, as there is no evidence to suggest that a tax break of this nature will increase aspirations for marriage among the groups least likely to choose this type of relationship. If anything, legalising gay marriage would probably be more likely to increase marriage aspirations amongst the younger generation, through updating the image of marriage to reflect contemporary values and contemporary relationships. The government’s consultation on gay marriage is therefore to be applauded.

Similarly, given the high ‘entry’ costs to marriage (as discussed above) tax breaks are unlikely to act as a genuine incentive for a couple to marry. However, new Working Tax Credit regulations will leave many working couples on low incomes with children significantly worse off than previously. This could act as a profound disincentive to cohabitation, and runs counter to the Coalition Government’s strategy to promote relationship stability. Any funds that the Government intends to use in the future to fund tax breaks for married couples should be used to reverse these changes.158 Changes to family law implemented by the Coalition have had an equally mixed impact. Compulsory Mediation Information and Assessment Meetings for separating parents who propose a court action to resolve a dispute about their child could reduce the numbers of families engaging in costly and polarising litigation. Indeed, since 76 | A MAN’S WORTH

the introduction of MIAMs last year, one mediation organisation has found that 70-80% of couples attending decide that they would prefer to mediate than litigate.159 However, the proposals to strip the bulk of divorce applicants of entitlement to Legal Aid leaves many couples in a vulnerable position with the prospect of either paying a lawyer to represent them, or representing themselves in court. 160 This comes as a harsh blow to couples who are struggling financially, particularly those who may be trapped in abusive or high conflict relationships and unwilling or unable to meet domestic violence evidential gateway laid down by Government for access to Legal Aid.161 Current Government policy is characterised by an over-reliance on financial incentives and disincentives to shape couple-relationship behaviour and a failure to recognise the latent social value of stable committed relationships outside of marriage. Additional resources should be diverted into designing better and more specialised forms of relationship support services that can support couples regardless of their formal relationship status.

7. CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS A closer look at the changing attitudes and aspirations of young men and women today shows that the ‘crisis of masculinity’ is currently being understood only in simplistic, superficial ways. The result is that we are identifying symptoms not causes, outcomes not the attitudes and outlooks that lead to them. This is damaging for a number of reasons: it supports gender inequality by fuelling essentialist ideas about men’s and women’s roles; it stirs up a sense of ‘nostalgia’ about the benefits of a traditional past that never really existed; and it often wastes money through funding policies and programmes that don’t always address the real problems.

Learning that you are a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl’ is the first great marker of your A MAN’S WORTH | 77

identity as an infant, and one that sets in motion a series of ideas about how you behave, and what you should become. Despite the benefits of feminism and the civil rights movements in broadening gender roles and questioning assumptions about the extent of the innate differences between men and women, gender stereotypes are alive and well in today’s society, and in many cases flourishing.

They can for example be seen in the increasing sexualisation and objectification of women in the media and the recent and reactionary rise in laddish behaviour and rugged masculinity in popular culture.

Most gender stereotypes actually have negative effects when combined with modern trends – for example, the role of ‘breadwinner’ is considered irrelevant in times of high unemployment; there is arguably no ‘use’ for a father in children’s lives given the intervention of welfare state; and there is pressure on women to be both worker and home maker as a result of the expansion of labour market opportunities, but a lack of cultural change in the home that would delegate domestic and childcare chores.

Alongside this, men and women have been affected by structural change in different ways, with corresponding differences in their psychological and attitudinal responses. But between the 1960s and 1990s, there was a sustained period of reflection on and redefinition of what is means to be a woman. The result was a great overhaul of outdated and restrictive norms about what was appropriate or expected of women and a great broadening of opportunities. The benefits of feminism and the women’s liberation movement have been in combating not just structural inequality (where the record is patchy at best) but also the psychological consequences of structural change. Feminism has helped women to become more resilient and adaptable to that change. It gave women an outlook of opportunity, and provided a vision for women that allowed them to build a new set of aspirations for themselves.

Understandably, there was no corresponding movement for men and no pressure for one, given their clearly privileged position in society.

But the evidence associated with the ‘crisis of masculinity’ suggests that the lack of similar interrogation of men’s role in society is now 78 | A MAN’S WORTH

starting to be felt, and felt more keenly in already deprived parts of society. Working-class, young men in particular have not adapted well to structural change and have not been able to counter the subsequent psychological consequences: disengagement at school, lack of aspiration to work, absence as parents, welfare dependency, and risky and anti-social behaviour. The psychological mindset of this group of young men now reinforces their structural disadvantage. Their behaviour and attitudes are contributing to their weak labour market position, their absence in parenting, the failure of their couple relationships, and their educational underachievement.

It is clear that structural change alone, then, does not fully account for differing and diverging gendered outcomes. Gender roles and identity are also a part of this process, and can act as a driver of structural change as well as shape men and women’s responses to this change. For many young men from deprived communities, this relationship between low aspiration and lack of control – as a perception and a reality – is particularly strong. The true ‘crisis’ for men and boys is being played out on this more micro, psychological level. Our failure to update and re-cast our idea of masculinity and male identity is arguably having a negative effect on men’s abilities to cope with and adjust to recent structural change. Far from only affecting men, the consequences of the ‘crisis of masculinity’ are felt by all.

PRINCIPLES FOR POLICY MAKERS Having examined the evidence outlined above, drawn from a review of existing academic and policy literature and from speaking to young and older men and women and practitioners in a community on the coalface of social and economic change, we believe there is a need for a far more coherent policy response to address the problems and concerns of boys and men, and gender equality as a whole. We have identified the following principles as being central to these objectives: A MAN’S WORTH | 79

• • • • • • •

Gender equality means equality for men too.

There should be support for relationship stability rather than marital status.

Men need support and encouragement to be engaged parents.

Traditional narrow gender roles should be challenged not reinforced.

Gender relations are not a zero-sum game.

Boys and girls need support to be self-reflective learners.

Aspirations and expectations matters as much, but not more than, structural realities.

Gender equality means equality for women and men too

Issues of gender equality tend to focus on women, but by its nature gender equality must address both men’s and women’s concerns. Women’s issues tend to be referred to explicitly in policy making whereas men’s and boys’ issues are left implicit across most government policies, programmes and performance frameworks.

In many areas, addressing men’s concerns explicitly is imperative to achieving gender equality for women as well, particularly policy matters that affect men differently from women, for example in relation to flexible work and parenting.

Where necessary, issues relevant to boys and men should be dealt with individually (for example those specifically related to men’s health), but in most cases, gender equality strategies should be joined up and focus on gender relations between men and women rather than creating two parallel strategies, one targeted at ‘women’ and the other at ‘men’. Clearly articulating and communicating the importance of men’s and boys’ involvement in supporting gender equality measures is also crucial.

The Gender Equality Duty provides an important framework for doing this within the UK, particularly through the ‘gender impact assessment’ framework. The 2006 EU Conference on Men and Gender Equality and the 2004 UN Commission on the Status of Women on ‘the role of men and boys in achieving gender equality’ also provide important international comparisons and ways forward.

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There should be support for relationship stability rather than marital status

Cuts to Working Tax Credits for couples with children who aren’t able to find less than 24 hours work per week could act as a real disincentive to cohabitation, which runs directly counter to the Coalition’s professed interest in promoting relationship stability. It is unfortunate that the Government consistently underestimates the latent social value of committed and stable relationships irrespective of a marital status, and it is concerning that this oversight is having an impact on financial policy. Marriage tax breaks, which appear to have been shelved for the time being, are a poor use of resources and will ultimately fail to support people in the disadvantaged groups that they are targeted at, the majority of whom do not see marriage as a viable or desirable aspiration.

Government should direct further resources into investing in relationship counselling and support. Support should be targeted at couples before and during key transition points, when relationships are undergoing the greatest amount of strain – for example around the birth of children.

Antenatal classes should focus on preparing the mother for birth but also prepare couples for inevitable relationship strains and difficulties and arm them with coping mechanisms. Health visitors should provide advice on relationship support during their first home visit and actively involve fathers and emphasise the importance of their role in the birth and parenthood process. This should happen alongside greater investment in preventative approaches to domestic violence and to existing safe havens for victims. Recent investment by Government in a range of relationship support providers is a positive step. We hope to see this investment extended, and a pilot programme offering relationship support to first-time parents rolled out nationally on a subsidised basis over the coming years.

In the case of relationship breakdown where children are involved, introducing charges for using the Child Support Service and reducing child maintenance payments is an ineffective way to encourage parents to work out their problems among themselves, and instead hurts vulnerable parents. Instead, further resources should be put into enhancing mediation services for couples.

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Men need support and encouragement to be engaged parents:

Fathers should be encouraged to be engaged parents for their children.

Their ability to provide both financial and emotional support should be highlighted. Men’s role as a parent, not just a specific (and secondary) role as ‘father’, should be promoted. We welcome the recommendation in the recent report from the Riots Communities and Victims Panel that statutory services should ‘as a matter of course, contact fathers at the same time as mothers about their children’ as long as it is in the best interest of the child.162 This approach of assuming equal responsibility and engagement from both mothers and fathers should be consistently applied across children services communications policies.

To deliver on this vision for fathers however, a whole host of parenting policies must become more equal, staring with parental leave.

The Government recently announced a consultation on modern workplaces. It should be applauded for recognising the importance of protected leave for fathers and for encouraging shared parenting more generally, for example through making support services more father friendly and encouraging flexible working for all.

However, rate of pay is a particularly crucial issue shaping fathers’ decisions on whether to take parental leave. Well paid leave is essential, particularly for young and poor fathers, and protected ‘daddy leave’ that is not paid well will ultimately only support more affluent families, adding to inequalities. All parental leave should be paid at two-thirds of earning level in order to increase fathers’ uptake of this leave, in line with the European Commission’s best practice indicator.163

Traditional narrow gender roles should be broadened not reinforced Policies to encourage greater personal responsibility and aspiration among boys and men should be progressive. They should take one step forward not one step back; broadening out rather than embracing traditional gender roles.

Gender stereotypes are strongly perpetuated through the media and advertising, supporting and perpetuating restrictive norms and representations of masculinity and femininity. The Government should 82 | A MAN’S WORTH

fund projects to monitor gender stereotyping in the media and publish findings on the way and the frequency with which male and female characters are portrayed. It should invest in educational initiatives that challenge gender stereotypes and seek to find ways to develop and expand a more diverse representation of masculinity across the media. Social marketing and communications approaches should be developed to deliver this change, and we should learn from innovative approaches from abroad (for example the Ring the Bell campaign against domestic violence, which has been very successful in India and the work of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media in the United States).164

Gender relations are not a zero-sum game

Funding for men and boys should not be reallocated from existing resources supporting women. The current financial landscape, recession and extensive cuts to public services have already hit women’s services particularly hard. When the comprehensive spending review was announced, Shadow Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described it as ‘the biggest reversal of women’s opportunities and economic independence’ since the First World War. Analysis from the House of Common’s library shows that women are bearing the brunt of the cuts. There has been an increase in the number of closures to frontline welfare services, for example rape crisis centres and safe havens for female victims of domestic violence.165 Rather than reallocating money from women’s services to men’s, we should explore opportunities to shift resources from punitive to preventative approaches, and to mainstream masculinity and gender issues within existing services.

Boys and girls need support to be self-reflective learners

In so far as the crisis of masculinity relates to an aspiration gap among young, disadvantaged boys and men, developing resilience and a strong internal locus of control is the best way to broaden horizons and support boys with the skills they need to cope as they become adults. Research shows that having strong soft skills underpins educational success and leads to self-reflective and self-motivating individuals. This should be at the heart of educational strategies to support boys, and should take centre stage.166 A MAN’S WORTH | 83

The current policy focus on engineering young men’s uptake of traditionally ‘female’ teaching and caring jobs may be an important part of a larger, more holistic strategy to increase boys’ achievement and aspiration, but should not serve as a centrepiece policy, as it currently stands. Encouraging a broader range of skills that are relevant to the twenty-first century economy – rather than simply trying to drive uptake of ‘female’ jobs for men – will be more likely to lead to that desired outcome. It also is an end in itself in that soft skills are simply more important to success, no matter what type of job a young person goes in to.

Moreover, direct attempts to increase the number of male role models for boys (primary school teachers or childcare workers) have been largely ineffective and also support gender-essentialist ideas about who can be role models for boys, when research points to the irrelevance of gender in shaping young people’s views of teachers and role models.

Rather, recruitment strategies should seek to identify high-quality and ‘gender-aware’ candidates and develop ‘gender-sensitive’ curricula.

The teacher-training curriculum should be adapted to be more gender aware and gender sensitive so that teachers understand the subtle influences that gender stereotypes have in the playground and classroom.

Aspiration matters as much, but not more than, structural realities in shaping people’s lives

Any policy strategy aiming to raise aspirations and increase personal responsibility must have as part of its goal the increase of opportunities and equality more broadly. Social mobility has stagnated across the UK, and many communities face rising levels of unemployment and reductions in state support services because of the recession. Many young men have lost their sense of control and aspiration for the future as a direct result of real, structural change, which has reduced their opportunities.

The Coalition Government’s strategy to ‘make work pay’, however, is driven by an approach to capping benefits below the average wage (as set out in plans for the universal credit) as an incentive to move into 84 | A MAN’S WORTH

work. But there is no corresponding strategy that aims to increase wages, despite the fact that the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, and evidence suggesting that the gap in equality is the source of many other social ills.167 Examples like the London living wage campaign168 and Ken Livingstone’s commitment to make the living wage a condition of procurement, employment and services by the GLA should be embraced and expanded.169 Nick Clegg’s call to increase income tax thresholds for working families on low and middle incomes should also be taken forward. Benefits should be high enough to keep those out of work out of poverty, and we should continue to develop ways for people to engage in meaningful activities even while seeking work, for example, through time banking or work experience and voluntary placements.

RECOMMENDATIONS BOYS AT SCHOOL Combat bullying

Young people can generate enormous pressure on one another to conform to traditional gender roles from a young age. Boys and girls who do not conform to conventional gender stereotypes are more likely to be bullied, and much of this bullying is likely to be homophobic in tone. Homophobia has become the tool of comment on non-traditional gender roles for both men and women outside school.

The same pattern can be seen in school. Boys who love learning, prefer homework to going out, prefer reading to football, work hard at school, and express their emotions risk being subjected to homophobic abuse. This bullying is not homophobia in the traditional sense of prejudice towards gay people. Instead it is A MAN’S WORTH | 85

prejudice towards boys and young men who do not conform to a traditional masculine identity. It is not about being gay, it is about being male. In fact some research shows that young people who are gay can be much more resilient to this form of bullying than those who are heterosexual. Stonewall’s Teacher’s Report in 2009 found that three in four teachers report that students who are perceived to be gay are bullied. Crucially, this perception is based on masculine or feminine norms about behaviour such as boys who are not into sport or who are ‘academic’ or girls who ‘behave like boys’.170 Schools already do a lot to combat bullying. They are also increasingly aware of homophobic bullying and are developing different ways of addressing it. Under the Equality Act 2010 schools have a duty to eliminate discrimination and bullying linked to sexual orientation or gender.

Schools, colleges and local authorities must now recognise that this duty is about protecting the rights not only of gay students or female students but also those of straight students and male students.

As evidence of complying with the Equality Act 2010 education providers should develop their curriculum and behaviour policies to actively combat all bullying related to gender, including bullying of male students who do not conform to a traditional masculine identity.

Teach boys

Universities and larger school providers should collaborate to develop and evaluate interventions specifically designed to improve boys’ engagement and attitudes to learning; and to raise their levels of achievement. The interventions should focus on boys from low income families in a small number of coeducational settings serving both poor and affluent communities. The interventions could include changes in curriculum, teaching approaches, forms of assessment, behaviour management, work with parents and the local community, and school design.

Such interventions should be generated by the staff, students and local community in partnership with the university research team.

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The collaboration should generate practical materials for teachers, managers and school leaders, which can be shared with other schools.

Include relationships and sexual health in sex education

Schools should continue to further integrate their sex education with teaching young people about couple relationships, commitment, fidelity, having children, marriage and civil partnerships. Lessons should help young people to take responsibility for and control of their behaviour, and to make informed decisions and moral choices.

Schools should seek to actively engage parents and family members in sex and relationship education in order to reinforce responsible messages about sex, relationships and sexual health. The Government should be given credit for recognising the importance of strengthening the priority of teaching about relationships.171 However, it is disappointing that it has recently ruled out making further elements of the curriculum statutory.172

Focus on the quality of the teaching not the gender of the teacher

Politicians and journalists repeatedly talk about the importance of male role models in young boys’ lives, and conclude that schools must have more male teachers if we are to combat the gap in outcomes between boys and girls at all ages. This is little evidence to back up this assertion. There is however plenty of evidence that boys will do better if they have better quality teaching regardless of whether it is a male or female teacher. The more pressing priority is for schools and teachers to understand how their teaching practices and expectations of what students can and will achieve are having a differential impact on boys and girls in their class. Furthermore, schools must look at how they are engaging with parents at home and changing families’ expectations and behaviours that contribute to boys’ achievement.

To this end, school governors, school trusts and local authorities should include in their assessment of the quality of teaching and the overall effectiveness of the school an evaluation of boys’ achievement and progress relative to that of girls. Individual lessons and the whole school should not be assessed as ‘good’ if there are significant weaknesses with boys’ learning.

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Indeed local authorities and school trusts could go further and financially reward schools that successfully improve results and narrow the gap in attainment between boys and girls. Payment by results is unusual in most public services, especially schools. Introducing it intelligently as a measure not just to raise overall attainment but also to reduce disparities between different student groups could prove highly effective.

AS BOYS BECOME MEN Engage the ‘lion’s den’

Under the General Equality Duty, local authorities should engage ‘lion’s den’ institutions that can influence cultural and social norms among young men. Such institutions include football clubs, boxing clubs, scouts and cadets, martial arts organisations and some local businesses. Where possible these institutions should be enlisted in a campaign to raise aspirations for young men locally; broaden their horizons; challenge unhelpful male stereotypes; communicate positive messages about work, fatherhood and relationships; and combat all prejudice concerning gender. Similar messages but very different tactics could be deployed using online social networks and through work with gangs, young offenders and young drug users.

Mix education with work

All young people should have ready and easy access to apprenticeships, work-based learning and vocational courses, whether they are at school, college, in training or in employment. Young men must be able to see the connection between their education and work, and be motivated to progress from education into work.

The range of providers offering careers advice and services to young people should be widened. Schools should be supported to use new procurement powers laid out in a recent publication by BIS to favour providers offering multiple and repeated opportunities for work experience, taster experiences of different careers, and volunteering for all young people.173 The debate on the National Civic Service programme should be renewed, with greater urgency.

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MEN AS PARENTS Give men’s equality a stronger voice

Voluntary and community organisations that promote gender equality have long been underfunded compared with those promoting equality for disabled people or racial equality. Central and local government should provide some grant funding to support the work of these voluntary organisations that are committed to promoting gender equality, including men’s charities such as those that support fathers to be positive parents, promote men’s health and mental health, and tackle issues that disproportionately affect men such as offending, rough sleeping or suicide. Seedcorn financial capital and practical help could be made available to local men to set up such organisations if none exist.

Give fathers a stronger voice

Local authorities should work closely with men’s organisations to improve the way local children’s services engage with fathers.

Local organisations should provide clear expectations that fathers should actively engage with their child’s care, education, health and development. Further action should be taken to engage nonresident parents. As more local government services are transferred to the private or third sector, it is important to establish strong local governance that represents the interests of the local community. Local authorities should require new providers of services for children and young people to establish governance models that have strong parent representation, including the representation of fathers.

Support couples with new babies

The NHS and local authorities should fund the voluntary and community sector to offer antenatal courses universally to all new parents. Specific courses should be targeted at couples, with the expectation that both parents attend. These courses should be designed so that couples can meet other couples in their area and form supportive relationships beyond the birth. The content of these courses should be broadened to cover more than just the healthrelated aspects of pregnancy and birth. Classes should also cover A MAN’S WORTH | 89

couple relationships and parenting. Over time post-natal courses should also aim to focus on child development, parenting, returning to work and sustaining strong couple relationships.

Support couple relationships

Funding for voluntary and community organisations to offer relationship support to couples should be continued and increased beyond £30 million over four years currently allocated by government which ends in 2013.174 Maternity services, GPs, children’s centres, schools and social care services should be encouraged to refer parents, particularly first-time parents, as standard practice and not just at points of crisis. We welcome the current pilot study offering subsidized relationship support to first-time parents in three Local Authority areas.175 This provision should remain subsidized, and should be rolled out nationally following evaluation.

Support dads in work

Rights to flexible working for fathers should be extended. Although all parents have the right to request to work flexibly, the reality is that take up is far less among fathers than mothers. Most fathers cite workplace prejudice and a low likelihood that their request will be met by their employer as reasons not to request flexible working hours. At tribunals dealing with appeals on rejected requests, mothers’ appeals are much more likely to be upheld than fathers’, pointing to a prejudice not only in the workplace, but in the surrounding equalities framework. Extending the right to request flexible working to all employees would also help to combat prejudice against parents and encourage businesses to learn to work more flexibly in general.

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APPENDIX FOCUS GROUP GUIDES FOCUS GROUP GUIDE: YOUNG MEN; YOUNG WOMEN Welcome and introductions • •

• •

Researchers introduce each other and talk about the masculinities project.

At the beginning of each session, participants will be reminded that they can pull out of the activities and discussion at any point if they wish (but will sacrifice their incentive). The researcher will also explain that information will be kept confidential and no personal details will appear in the report.

Consent form will be signed on arrival.

Participants give their name, where they live [the area] and how old they are.

Independence and identity • • • • • • • • • •

When do people become ‘adults’? At what age? What types of signs mark someone out as an ‘adult’?

When do you think is the right age to move away from home?

Do you think expectations for young women and young men are different in this regard? Do you think there are higher expectations for young women than young men or vice versa?

What do you think of young women in [your community]?

Who do you live with (parents, friends, alone, with your children, no fixed home)? Where do your (male) friends live?

Do you like where you are living?

How do you ‘get around’ in [your community] (do you drive, walk, take public transport)?

Where are the top three places you go (school, work, a friend’s place, pub, somewhere else?)

Are there ‘no go’ places in [your community]? Where do you steer clear of and why?

Would you ever move away from [your community]?

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Work • • • • • • •

What do you think someone’s job says about them? Is work just about making money, or about something more?

Are there many opportunities around in [your community]? If so, what kind (formal, informal, nearby, far away)?

Do you work/do you want to work? What do you do? What do you want to do?

What is your ‘dream job’?

Do you ever do odd jobs for extra cash or to make ends meet quickly? What do you do?

FLASHCARDS: put the jobs in different categories: ‘women’s jobs’, ‘men’s jobs’, ‘both’.

Now, look at all the jobs and put them in order of what you’d most like to do and least like to do.

Relationships and family • • • • • • • • •

What do you think shows ‘commitment’ between people in a relationship?

Do you think marriage is important? Why or why not?

What do you think a father’s role is or should be?

What do guys your age think about fatherhood? Would being a ‘stay at home dad’ be something you would consider doing [when you are older]?

Do you think young men reject the responsibilities of fatherhood in [your community], or do you think that young mothers tend to reject the father’s engagement in their child’s life?

What is the biggest ‘commitment’ in your life (finishing school, your job, your friends, your child, partner, parents?)

Who do you socialise with? Who are your friends?

Who do you spend the most time with (top three people)?

SOCIAL NETWORK MAPPING: draw a spider diagram with you in the centre, showing the people in your ‘network’ and how you know them. Draw bigger circles around the people that are most important to you. (We will do an example first on flip chart paper.)

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Closing • • • •

Explain use of research and data in project.

Share next steps, contact details, etc.

Give out incentives and get signatures for receipt.

Thanks and goodbye.

FOCUS GROUP GUIDE: OLDER RESIDENTS’ COMMUNITY GROUP Welcome and introductions • •

• •

Researchers introduce each other and talk about the masculinities project.

At the beginning of each session, participants will be reminded that they can pull out of the activities and discussion at any point if they wish (but will sacrifice their incentive). The researcher will also explain that information will be kept confidential and no personal details will appear in the report, but it will be recorded.

Verbal consent requested from participants.

Participants give their name, where they live [their community] and how long they’ve lived there.

Change over time • • • • •

What are the biggest changes that you’ve noticed in the [your community] since you moved here? Cultural and economic changes (flashcards).

What are the pros and cons of this change? (write on a flip chart and discuss).

What do you think young people do for fun in [your community]? Is it different for young men and young women?

Do you know many young couples/young families?

Do you think life is harder for young couples/families today than in the past? Why or why not?

Gendered attitudes •

Have stereotypes about men and women declined or just changed?

94 | A MAN’S WORTH

• • • • • •

How have men’s roles changed since you were young?

How have women’s roles changed since you were young?

What do you think a father’s role is or should be?

Is a lack of male role models a problem in [your community]?

What are the effects?

Do you have different expectations for young men and young women in [your community]?

Do you think more is expected from either young men or young women? Why or why not?

Raising children • • • • •

Do you have children?

When did your children move out from home/have they moved out from your home?

Where do your children live now? What do they do? Are they in a relationship or married?

Is it important to raise boys and girls differently? If so, in what ways? In what ways should they be brought up the same?

Do you think it is harder to be a parent (with young children) today than it was when you had young children? In what ways?

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ENDNOTES 1 H Sergeant, ‘Feral youths: how a generation of violent, illiterate young men are living outside the boundaries of civilized society’, Daily Mail, 19 Sep 2009, www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1214549/ Feral-youths-How-generation-violent-illiterate-young-men-livingoutside-boundaries-civilised-society.html (accessed 10 Nov 2011).

2 M Buerk, ‘Are men becoming redundant?’, Independent, 21 Aug 2005.

3 P Choiniere, ‘The quiet revolution – women surpassing men’, Theday.com, 1 May2010, www.theday.com/article/20100105/ INTERACT010201/100109912 (accessed 13 Nov 2011).

4 ‘Teenage boys fail to make the grade in 3Rs’, Times, 14 Sep 2006, www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1074007.ece (accessed 13 Nov 2011).

5 L McDowell, ‘The trouble with men? Young people, gender transformations and the crisis of masculinity’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24, no 1 (2000) 6 W Hutton, ‘Without any fear for the future, boys have given up their ambition’, Observer, 4 Jul 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/ commentisfree/2010/jul/04/boys-men-education-work (accessed 10 Nov 2011).

7 F Field, F. The Foundation Years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults. The report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances (Dec 2010) 8 S Ruxton. Man Made: Men, masculinities, and equality in public policy. (Coalition on Men and Boys: 2009) 9 M Cowburn, C Wilson with P Loewenstein, Changing Men: A 96 | A MAN’S WORTH

practice guide to working with adult male sex offenders, Nottingham: Nottinghamshire Probation Service, 1992.

10 Home Office, ‘Crime’, www.crimereduction.homeoffice.gov.uk/dv/ dv01.htm (accessed 10 Nov 2011).

11 BBC. ‘Nick Clegg outlines plans for new parental leave rules’, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12204079 (17, Jan, 2011) 12 N Davidson, Young Men and Mental Health Project, London: Working With Men, 1997.

13 M O’Hara. ‘Campaign warns against deathly silence on suicide’. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/03/suicide-preventioncampaign-jane-powell (Jan 3, 2012) (accessed March 1, 2012) 14 ONS, ‘Suicide Rates in the United Kingdom 2000-2009’, Office for National Statistics, 27 Jan 2011.

15 Press release 2009, available online at http://www.thecalmzone. net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/2011-25-May-Merseyside-Sees-aDramatic-Fall-in-Numbers-of-Young-Male-Suicides.pdf. Accessed 12/02/12.

16 S Rogers, ‘Asbos: find out where they’re issued, how many and by whom’, Guardian, 28 Jul 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/news/ datablog/2010/jul/28/asbo-orders-statistics-police-force#data (accessed 11 Jul 2011).

17 A Travis, ‘Asbo breach rate among young teenagers hits 73%’, Guardian, 25 Jan 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/25/ asbo-breach-rate-young-teenagers (accessed 3 Jun 2011).

18 S Ruxton. Man Made: Men, masculinities, and equality in public policy. (Coalition on Men and Boys: 2009) 19 L Papadopoulos, The Sexualisation of Young People Review, London: Home Office, 2010.

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20 T Young, ‘The Home Office report on child sexualisation is a 100-page Cosmopolitan article’, Telegraph, 26 Feb 2010, http://blogs. telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100027572/the-home-office-reporton-child-sexualisation-is-a-100-page-cosmopolitan-article/(accessed 3 Jun 2011).

21 Metropolitan Police Service, Crime figures for London, www.met. police.uk/crimefigures/index.php (accessed 3 Jun 2011).

22 Women’s Aid, Annual Survey: Domestic Violence Statistics, www. womensaid.org.uk/domestic_violence_topic.asp?section=0001000100 220036&sectionTitle=Statistics (accessed 3 Jun 2011).

23 ‘Ken Clarke clarifies “serious rape” remarks, BBC News, 18 May 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13436429 (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

24 S Ruxton, Man Made: Men, masculinities and equality in public policy, London: Coalition on Men and Boys, 2009.

25 Equality and Human Rights Commission, Sex and Power 2011 (http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/sex+power/ sex_and_power_2011_gb__2_.pdf ) 26 ‘Britain’s FTSE 100 boardrooms are still male dominated’, Telegraph, 19 Nov, 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ businesslatestnews/6603273/Britains-FTSE-100-boardrooms-stlllmale-dominated.html (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

27 Global Media Monitoring Project 2010 (Who Makes the News: 2010) (http://www.whomakesthenews.org/images/stories/restricted/ highlights/highlights_en.pdf ) 28 R Pugh & C Dearfield. Women’s Media Center 2012 report on the status of women in the US Media (http://wmc.3cdn.net/ a6b2dc282c824e903a_arm6b0hk8.pdf ) 29 SL Smith and M Choueiti, Gender On Screen and 98 | A MAN’S WORTH

Behind the Camera in Family Films: An executive summary, www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/downloads/KeyFindings_ GenderDisparityFamilyFilms.pdf (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

30 S Ruxton, Man Made: Men, masculinities and equality in public policy, London: Coalition on Men and Boys, 2009. See also Council of the European Union, ‘Conclusions on Men and Gender Equality’, 1 December 2006 31 See T Sewell, Black Masculinities and Schooling: How black boys survive modern schooling, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, 1997.

32 RW Connell, Masculinities, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.

33 R Garner, ‘Private schools still best route to top jobs, survey shows’, Independent, 28 Jun 2007.

34 D Willetts, The Pinch: How the baby boomers took their children’s future – and how they can give it back, London: Atlantic Books, 2010; see also ‘Has feminism blocked social mobility for men?’, 6 Apr 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12970105 (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

35 L McDowell, ‘The trouble with men? Young people, gender transformations and the crisis of masculinity’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 24, no 1, 2000.

36 J Heartfield, ‘There is no masculinity crisis’, Genders 35, 2002, www.genders.org/g35/g35_heartfield.html (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

37 Ibid.

38 A Champion and A Townsend, Contemporary Britain : A geographical perspective, London: Edward Arnold, 1990.

39 ONS, Social Trends 39, Office for National Statistics, 2009: Labour Market (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/social-trends-rd/socialA MAN’S WORTH | 99

trends/social-trends-39/index.html) 40 Social Exclusion Unit, Mental Health and Social Exclusion, London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2004.

41 A Nayak, ‘Displaced Masculinities: Chavs, youth and class in the post-industrial city’, Sociology 40, no 5, 2006.

42 Ibid.

43 ONS, Social Trends 40, Office for National Statistics, 2010.

44 ONS Statistical Bulletin. Labour Market Statistics: February 2012 (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_254579.pdf ) 45 TUC, Women and Recession: How will this recession affect women at work, London: Trades Union Congress, 2009.

46 ‘Young people’s worries as youth unemployment rises’ January 18, 2012. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16609608); see also ‘Youth unemployment hits 1 million’. 16 November 2011. (http:// www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/16/youth-unemploymenthits-1m-uk) 47 ONS, Social Trends 40, Office for National Statistics, 2010.

48 ONS, Social Trends 39, Office for National Statistics, 2009: Labour Market (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/social-trends-rd/socialtrends/social-trends-39/index.html) 49 ONS, Social Trends 39, Office for National Statistics, 2009.

50 ONS, Marriages in England and Wales, 2010 | 29 February 2012 (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_258307.pdf ) 51 ONS, Social Trends 40.

100 | A MAN’S WORTH

52 Ibid.

53 Knowsley’s Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan 20092011: Annual Review and Refresh (http://www.knowsley.gov.uk/pdf/ Children-Young-Peoples-Strategy-2009-2011.pdf ) 54 Lone parents with dependent children, January 2012, Office for National Statistics 55 DCSF, Teenage Parents: Next steps, London: Department for Children, Schools and Families, 2007.

56 G Cooke and P Gregg, ‘Introduction: liberation welfare’ in G Cooke and P Gregg (eds), Liberation Welfare, London: Demos, 2010.

57 A Delaney, ‘The anguish of unemployment’, Huffington Post, 9 Mar 2009, www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/03/the-anguish-ofunemployme_n_276545.html 58 P Gregg and J Wadsworth, ‘Economic inactivity’ in P Gregg and J Wadsworth J (eds), The State of Working Britain, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.

59 For example, ‘Families hit by average of £45 a week “couple penalty”’, The Christian Institute, www.christian.org.uk/news/ families-hit-by-average-of-45-a-week-couple-penalty/ (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

60 DT Cook, The Commodification of Childhood: The children’s clothing industry and the rise of the child consumer, Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2004.

61 M Smithers, ‘Pester power makes parent’s spend more on children’s Christmas gifts’, Guardian, 23 Nov 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/ money/blog/2010/nov/23/pester-power-parents-spend-childrenchristmas-presents (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

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62 MAPS, Children’s Clothing, Nov 1997, World Business Information and Market Reports, www.the-list.co.uk/acatalog/ mp18057.html (accessed 11 Nov 2011); S Coughlan, ‘Spoilt for choice’, BBC News 13 Jun 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/ hi/5071222.stm (accessed 11 Nov 2011)..

63 TIE, Facts and Figures 2000, Brussels: Toy Industries of Europe, 2000; TIE, Facts and Figures 2009, Brussels: Toy Industries of Europe, 2009.

64 ‘New study reveals toys are more gender-specific than ever before’ http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/news/genderedtoys.html (16 december 2008) 65 C Fine, Delusions of Gender: the real science behind sex difference. (Icon: 2010) 66 R Bailey. Letting Children be Children - Report of an Independent Review of the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood.

(Department for Education: 2010) 67 GCSE and Equivalent Attainment by Pupil Characteristics in England, 2010/11. Statistical First Release: (http://www.education. gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001057/SFR03_2012.pdf ) 68 DfE: GCE/Applied GCE A/AS and Equivalent Examination Results in England, 2009/10 (Revised) http://www.education.gov.uk/ rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000986/index.shtml 69 ‘Class of degree achieved by students obtaining first degree qualifications at HEIs in the UK by gender and mode of study 2005/06 to 2009/10(1)’, Statistical First Release, Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2011, www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/pressOffice/sfr153/ SFR153_table_6.pdf (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

70 A Milburn. Unleashing Aspiration: The Final Report of the Panel on Fair Access to the Professions (Cabinet Office: 2010) 102 | A MAN’S WORTH

71 http://www.poverty.org.uk/25/index.shtml 72 R Teese et al, Who Wins at School? Boys and girls in Australian Secondary Education, Department of Education Policy and Management, University of Melbourne, 1995.

73 http://www.poverty.org.uk/26/index.shtml 74 J Lexmond and R Reeves, Building Character, London: Demos, 2009.

75 DCSF, The Children’s Plan: Building brighter futures, London: Department for Children, Schools, and Families, 2009.

76 Lahey, B. B., Miller, T. L., Gordon, R. A., & Riley, A. W. (1999).

Developmental epidemiology of the disruptive behavior disorders. In H. C. Quay & A. E. Hogan (Eds.), Handbook of disruptive disorders (pp. 23-48). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

77 C Connolly and M Gregory, ‘Moving down: women’s part-time work and occupational change in britain 1991-2001, Economic Journal, Feb 2008.

78 C Paechter, Educating the Other: Gender, power and schooling, London: Falmer Press, 1998; C Skelton, Schooling the Boys: Masculinities and primary education, Buckingham: Open University Press, 2001.

79 C Skelton and B Read, ‘Male and female teachers’ evaluative responses to gender and the implications of these for the learning environments of primary age pupils’, International Studies of Sociology in Education 16, no 2, Sep 2006.

80 W Harlen, ‘Assessment and learning research synthesis group’, EPPI Review, 2004; J Elwood and P Murphy, ‘Gender and performance at 14: tests, tiers and achievement’, paper presented at the International Association for Educational Assessment, Jerusalem, A MAN’S WORTH | 103

Israel, 14–19 May 2000.

81 C Fine. Delusions of Gender: The real science behind sex difference. (Icon: 2010) 82 S Kraemer, The Fragile Male. (BMJ: 2000) 83 S Kraemer, The Fragile Male. (BMJ: 2000) 84 C Fine. Delusions of Gender: The real science behind sex difference. (Icon: 2010) 85 J Benetto, Staying On: Making the extra years in education count for all young people, Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009, www.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/ ehrc_education_60pp.pdf (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

86 B Carrington, ‘A quintessentially feminine domain? Student teachers constructions of primary teaching as a career’, Education Studies 28, no 3, 2002.

87 Quoted in ‘Male teachers for role models’, BBC News, 23 Aug 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/893313.stm (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

88 Daycare Trust and TUC, Raising the Bar: What next for the early childhood education and care workforce?, London: Daycare Trust and Trades Union Congress, 2008.

89 ‘Nick Clegg’s speech on supporting families and children’, 17 Jun 2010, (www.libdems.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?title=Nick_Clegg’s_ speech_on_supporting_families_and_children&pPK=6d739b7508a1-4262-9309-39b0fc8fc45c) (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

90 B Carrington, P Tymms and C Merrell, ‘Role models, school improvement and the “gender gap” – do men bring out the best in boys and women the best in girls?’, British Educational Research 104 | A MAN’S WORTH

Journal 34, no 3, 2008.

91 E Lahelma, ‘Lack of male teachers: a problem for students or teachers?’, Pedagogy, Culture and Society 8, no 2, 2000.

92 W Martino, ‘Male teachers as role models: addressing issues of masculinity, pedagogy and the re-masculinisation of schooling’, Curriculum Inquiry 38, no 2, 2008.

93 Department for Children, Schools, and Families (Crown: 2009) Gender and Education: mythbusters (http://dera.ioe. ac.uk/9095/1/00599-2009BKT-EN.pdf ) 94 Gender Agenda: Gender issues in school – What works to improve achievement for boys and girls http://media.education.gov.uk/assets/ files/pdf/8/8311dcsfgender%20what%20works%20bmkpdf.pdf 95 National Centre for Social Research, British Social Attitudes, 24th report, London: Sage, 2008.

96 O McNamara et al, Women Teachers’ Careers, Birmingham, National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, 2008.

97 Royal College of Physicians, Women and Medicine: The future, London: Royal College of Physicians, 2009.

98 D Wilkins. Untold Problems: a review of the essential issues in the mental health of men and boys. (January 2010) (http://www.nmhdu. org.uk/silo/files/untold-problems-a-review-of-the-essential-issues-inthe-mental-health-of-men-and-boys.pdf ) and also Delivering Male: effective practice in male mental health. January 2011 (http://www. nmhdu.org.uk/silo/files/delivering-male.pdf ) 99 J Margo, ‘A way out of the mancession’, Guardian, 19 Aug 2010, www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/19/apprenticeshipunemployment-gender-gap (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

A MAN’S WORTH | 105

100 D Wilkins & M Kemple. Delivering Male: effective practice in male mental health. January 2011 (http://www.nmhdu.org.uk/silo/ files/delivering-male.pdf ) 101 A Nayak, ‘Displaced masculinities: chavs, youth and class in the post-industrial city’, Sociology 40, 2006.

102 RL McDowell, ‘Capital culture revisited: sex, testosterone and the city’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 34, no 3, 2010; see also R Leidner, Fast Food, Fast Talk, Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1993.

103 National Centre for Social Research, British Social Attitudes, 24th report, London: Sage, 2008.

104 For a detailed discussion on this, see J Lexmond, L Bazalgette, & J Margo, The Home Front (Demos: 2010).

105 EHRC, response to BIS consultation on draft regulations, ‘Choice for families: additional paternity leave and pay’, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2009.

106 C Fagan, A Hegewisch and J Pillinger, Out of Time: Why Britain needs a new approach to working-time flexibility, London: Trades Union Congress, 2006, www.tuc.org.uk/extras/outoftime.pdf (accessed 3 Dec 2010).

107 Equal Opportunities Commission (2006) Free to choose: Tackling gender barriers to better jobs, One year on progress report, EOC; Women and Work Commission (2006) Shaping a Fairer Future, London: Department for Communities and Local Government 108 Apprenticeship starts, 2006/07 figures, www.apprenticeships.org. uk 106 | A MAN’S WORTH

109 M Flanagan, ‘”March of the makers” falters, dealing further blow to recovery’, Scotsman, http://business.scotsman.com/business/ Martin-Flanagan-39March-of-the.6778168.jp, accessed 15 Jun 2011.

110 L McDowall. The Trouble with Men? Young People, Gender Transformations and the Crisis of Masculinity. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Volume 24, Issue 1, pages 201–209, March 2000 111 http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-reform/the-workprogramme/ 112 Social Exclusion Unit, Mental Health and Social Exclusion, London: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2004.

113 Ibid.

114 H Ritche, J Casebourne, J Rick. Understanding workless people and communities: A literature reviewDepartment for Work and Pensions Research Report No 255 115 Ibid.

116 Ibid.

117 G Gottfried and K Lawton, ‘In work poverty in the recession’, briefing note, Institute for Public Policy Research, 2010.

118 Ibid.

119 ONS figures from H Stewart, ‘UK unemployment falling at fastest pace in a decade’, Guardian, 15 Jun 2011, www.guardian. co.uk/business/2011/jun/15/uk-unemployment-fastest-fall-in-10years (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

120 ‘As cuts widen Britain’s wealth gap… no, George, we’re mnot all in this together’, Mirror, 3 Apr 2011, www.mirror.co.uk/news/ A MAN’S WORTH | 107

top-stories/2011/04/03/as-cuts-widen-britain-s-wealth-gap-no-georgewe-re-not-all-in-this-together-115875-23037485/ (accessed 13 Nov 2011). For deeper discussion see R Wilkinson & K Pickett, the Spirit Level. (Penguin: 2009).

121 R Goldman, Fathers’ Involvement in their Children’s Education, London: National Family and Parenting Institute, 2005.

122 J Scott et al, ‘Factors associated with the initiation and duration of breast feeding among two populations of Australian women’, Journal of Paediatrics & Child Health 37, 2001.

123 DfES, Every Parent Matters, London: Dept for Education and Skills, 2007.

124 C Lewis, J Newson and E Newson, ‘Father participation through childhood and its relation to career aspiration and proto-delinquency’ in N Beail and J McGuire (eds), Fathers: Psychological perspectives, London: Junction, 1982.

125 J Blanden, ‘Bucking the trend: what enables those who are disadvantaged in childhood to succeed later in life?’, DWP working paper 31, 2006.

126 N Gartrell and H Bos, ‘US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: psychological adjustment of 17-year-old adolescents’, Pediatrics 126, no 1, 2010.

127 S Ruxton, Man Made 128 P Thane, Happy Families? History and family policy, London: British Academy, 2010.

129 S S Duncan, ‘What’s the problem with teenage parents?’ in S Duncan, E Rosalind and C Alexander (eds), Teenage Parenthood: What’s the problem?, London: Tufnell Press: 2010.

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130 Ibid.

131 For example see D Hawkes, ‘Just what difference does teenage motherhood make? Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study’ in Teenage Parenthood: what’s the problem? in S Duncan, E Rosalind and C Alexander (eds), Teenage Parenthood: What’s the problem?, London: Tufnell Press: 2010; and C Hannon, L Bazalgette and C Wood, In Loco Parentis, London: Demos:2010.

132 S Duncan, ‘What’s the problem with teenage parents?’ in S Duncan, E Rosalind and C Alexander (eds), Teenage Parenthood: What’s the problem?, London: Tufnell Press: 2010.

133 J Page, G Whitting and C McLean, A Review of How Fathers Can be Better Recognised and Supported Through DCSF Policy, London: Dept for Children, Schools and Families, 2008.

134 ‘Major Fatherhood Institute survey shows services must bridge the “dad deficit”’, press release, Fatherhood Institute, 22 Jun 2009, www.fatherhoodinstitute.org/2009/major-fatherhood-institute-surveyshows-services-must-bridge-the-dad-deficit/ (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

135 Ibid.

136 S Gimson, Health Visitors: An endangered species, London: Family and Parenting Institute, 2007) 137 P Cawson et al, Child Maltreatment in the United Kingdom: A study of the prevalence of child abuse and neglect, London: NSPCC, 2000.

138 Ibid.

139 F Field, The Foundation Years: Preventing poor children from becoming poor adults, the report of the Independent Review on Poverty and Life Chances, London: Cabinet Office, 2010.

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140 R Watson, ‘Fatherhood Institute chief slams Frank Field for “unemployed fathers” comments’, Children & Young People Now, 29 Jun 2010, www.cypnow.co.uk/news/1013144/Fatherhood-Institutechief-slams-Frank-Field-unemployed-fathers-comments (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

141 Government Actuary’s Department data, accessed at http://www. gad.gov.uk/Demography_Data/Marital_status_projections/2003/ mortality_assumptions.asp (18 June 2008); and Davidson K., Daly T., Arber S. (2003) Exploring the worlds of older men, in Arber S., Davidson K., Ginn J., Gender and Ageing: changing roles and relationships, Maidenhead: OUP/McGraw Hill , and Matheson J., Summerfield C. (eds.) (2001) Social Focus on Men, London: The Stationery Office 142 Directgov, ‘Getting married or registering a civil partnership’, www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/ Registeringlifeevents/Marriagesandcivilpartnerships/DG_175715 (accessed 16 Jun 2011).

143 A De Waal, Second Thoughts on the Family, London: Civitas, 2008.

144 See R Bennett, ‘Marriage still in fashion – finances are the problem’, The Times, 19 May 2008.

145 H Osborne, ‘Divorce online for £65’, Guardian, 23 May 2007, www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/may/23/divorce (accessed 16 Jun 2011).

146 C Bothwell, ‘The Real Cost of Divorce’, BBC News, 25 Oct 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6083814.stm (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

147 S Bruce, ‘Men more vulnerable in young adult relationships’, Mental Health News Organization, 9 Jul 2010, http:// mentalhealthnews.org/men-more-vulnerable-in-young-adult110 | A MAN’S WORTH

relationships/841462/ (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

151 Ermisch, Iacovou and Skew, ‘Family relationships’.

152 ‘Divorces in England and Wales 2009’, ONS Statistical Bulletin, 17 Feb 2011.

153 ‘Statistics’, Women’s Aid, www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic_ violence_topic.asp?section=0001000100220036&sectionTitle=Statisti cs (accessed 11 Nov 2011).

154 LGA, ADSS, Women’s Aid, CAFCASS (2006) Vision for services for children and young people affected by domestic violence, London: Local Government Association. This multi-agency guidance was produced by and supported by the Department of Health, Department for Children, Schools and Families, and the Home Office 155 Connell, Masculinities.

156 Government Equalities Office (2008) Tackling Violence Against Women: A cross-government narrative, www.equalities.gov.uk 157 H Ferguson et al, Ending Gender-based Violence: A call for global action to involve men, Stockholm: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, 2004; Cowburn and Wilson with Loewenstein, Changing Men. 158 HMRC, ‘Tax credits: effect of Budget changes from 6 April 2012’, HM Revenue & Customs, http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ taxcreditsbudget/index.htm# (accessed 13 Apr 2012).

159 ‘Divorcing couples to face compulsory marriage mediation’, Guardian, 23 Feb 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/ lifeandstyle/2011/feb/23/divorcing-couples-marriage-mediation (accessed 16 Jun 2011) and S Gooderham, ‘Major overhaul to family justice system’, The Mediation Specialists, 21 Feb 2011, http://www. themediationspecialists.co.uk/2012/02/21/major-overhaul-to-reformA MAN’S WORTH | 111

family-justice-system-includes-compulsory-mediation-informationand-assessment-meetings-for-most-cases- involving-children-parentsmust-find-out-about-family-mediation-first-b/ (accessed 12 Apr 2012).

160 J Insley, ‘Cheap divorce websites carry hidden costs, lawyers warn’, Observer, 16 Jan 2011, www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/ jan/16/cut-price-divorce-websites-may-cost-money (accessed 16 Jun 2011) 161 ‘Legal Aid bill update’, Resolution, http://www.resolution.org. uk/e-news-editorial.asp?page_id=617 (accessed 13 Apr 2012).

162 After the Riots, p.47, London: Riots Communities and Victims Panel, 2012.

163 BIS, International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research 2010, London: Dept for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2010.

164 Breakthrough, Bell Bajao (Ring the Bell) campaign, http:// bellbajao.org/ (accessed 11 Nov 2011). Geena Davis Institute: http:// www.thegeenadavisinstitute.org/ 165 A Topping, ‘Cuts force domestic violence refuges to turn victims away’, Guardian 31 Jan 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/ society/2012/jan/31/domestic-violence-victims-risk-cuts (accessed 13 Apr 2012) 166 4Children, Knowsley Young People’s Commission: Unlocking the potential of young people in Knowsley, London: 4Children, 2010.

167 R Wilkinson and K Pickett, The Spirit Level, London: Penguin: 2009.

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