Policies in Western countries promoting gender equality have, in recent years, favored the recognition of women as a highly valuable asset in the labor market, although there are still some gaps regarding pay equity in certain fields compared to men. However, this growth and recognition, driven by different policies, has created, in some areas, a significant gap with men who have not only been outperformed in many fields by women—which is entirely legitimate—but have, on the contrary, been relegated in certain aspects, leading to a new form of inequality that was not the objective of these initiatives.
The author, Richard V. Reeves, draws on extensive real data from the United States—which may have proportional reflections in other industrialized countries—about the situation of men in various domains: in education, with high school failure rates among boys; in access to higher education; in jobs related to health, education, administration, and literacy, where women represent a very high percentage of this labor market; and finally, in the home, where the father’s role is crucial in many aspects of child-rearing and education.
This is not a critique of feminism. On the contrary, the author, with a very neutral tone but based on irrefutable data, advocates for real equality between men and women, without gaps, emphasizing the importance of both work and educational roles toward children, for both genders equally important and equally necessary.