The War Against Boys by Christina Hoff Sommers

Boys in America do significantly worse in school than do girls. Boys are now outnumberd by girls in college enrollment and in graduate education, even in many fields once dominated by males. Boys remain much more likely than girls to engage in violence and drug use throughout childhood and adolescence. Yet we don’t hear about a crisis among boys in this country. We do hear about a crisis among girls, that they need saving, that their self-esteem is, collectively, at a dangerously low level. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence for this, but surprisingly little science backing it up. In fact, most research indicates that girls are receiving more support and feeling and doing better than they have in decades. In The War Against Boys, Sommers delives boatloads of science--most of it from Europe--that shows boys may be in much more of a crisis, and that programs to help them work, if only anyone would take the time to notice them. While we hear often in the US of the success of girls in single-gender math classes, for example, rarely do we hear that boys in Europe do much better in single-gender classes in a variety of subjects. The War Against Boys is thorough and detailed, and I was fully prepared to dismiss its arguments as an addition to the “everyone’s a victim” collection. Then, at halftime of a professional soccer game, I watched as a local team of 9-year-old boys played a short exhibition against a local team of 9-year-old girls. Developmentally, the girls were farther along then the boys, as is typical of the age: the girls were significantly taller and better coordinated. When the girls scored, the crowd appropriately voiced its strong approval. When the boys scored, the crowd booed--evidently for no reason other than their maleness.

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