So where is the fuss about these gender inequalities?
There are inequalities in society which are gender based. With some of them women are disadvantaged and with some, men are disadvantaged.
I’m all for reducing inequalities for women such as the gender pay gap, and the fact many more women get sexually harrassed and assaulted etc. This post is not an argument against that.
But there was a quote I saw along the lines that if there is an area where women face disadvantage, you get massive public campaigns about it. But in areas where men face disadvantage, there is a near total absence of activism or publicity.
This rang true to me. The gender pay gap for example gets massive publicity. Scores and scores of articles on the fact the average hourly wage for women is around 9.4% less than for men. Huge global campaigns on this. Government action statements etc.
How often do we see this for an area of male disadvantage? Very rare. This got me wondering how many areas are there where men do worse compared to women? So I started doing research. And you can see the results below.
So when people start going on about male privilege, maybe it would be nice to have some balance about all the areas where men have really bad outcomes.
Where are the ministries, the taskforces, the campaigns for these areas?
I’m not saying that overall women are more advantaged than men. It’s not a competition. What I’m saying is that there is a huge disparity in how we talk about areas of male disadvantage. As a society we are almost silent on it, while on issues such as a 9.4% pay gap we have endless publicity.
So here’s the areas to date I have identified where men or boys in New Zealand are disadvantaged.
Education – Secondary
- 11% less likely to get NCEA Level 1
- 7% less likely to get NCEA Level 2
- 14% less likely to get NCEA Level 3
- 25% more likely to leave school with no qualifications
- Twice as likely to be a high (special) needs student
- 27% less likely to get UE
- Three times more likely to be stood down, suspended
- 5 times more likely to be excluded or expelled
Education – Tertiary
- 42% less likely to be in tertiary education
- 36% less likely to obtain a diploma
- 37% less likely to obtain a bachelors degree
- 25% less likely to get Honours
- 37% less likely to get Masters
- 26% less likely to get a PhD
Crime
- Twice as likely to be a victim of homicide
- 43% more likely to be assaulted by a stranger
- Twelve times more likely to be in prison
- Five times more likely to be sentenced for a crime
- Eight times more likely to be sentenced to prison
Health
- Seven times more likely to commit suicide
- Six times more likely to be subject to a mental health compulsory treatment order
- Seven times more likely to be a mental health special patient
- 113% more likely to be a hazardous drinker
- 67% more likely to drink drive
- Twice as likely to be a user of hard drugs
- 10% more likely to get cancer
- 74% more likely to have coronary heart disease
- 31% more likely to have a stroke
- 270% more likely to have gout
- 11% more likely to have diabetes
- Ten times more likely to have HIV/AIDs
- Four years shorter life expectancy
- 24% more likely to be a smoker
- 11% more likely to be obese
- 28% more likely to have high blood pressure
- 33% more likely to have high cholesterol
- 46% more likely to have an intellectual disability
- 22% more likely to be hearing impaired
Work
- Twice as likely to be injured at work
- Three times as likely to be seriously injured at work
- Twenty times as likely to be killed at work
General/Other
- Three times more likely to be deported
- 2.1 times more likely to have a fatal accident
- Four times less likely to gain primary custody of children
- Five times more likely to have to be paying child support
- 10% more likely to be homeless
- 28% more likely to be injured in a car crash
- 130% more likely to be killed in a car crash
- Four times more likely to drown
- Seven times more likely to be autistic
- 24% more likely to have Down syndrome
- Five times more likely to have ADHD as a child
- 30% more likely to be an infant death
Quite chilling when you read the whole list.