November is Men's Equality Month
Celebrate International Men's Day - November 19th

A Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys & Men supports Mens Equality Month - November

The book, The Myth of Male Power, documented numerous areas of male disadvantage in the United States. In response, the International Council for Men and Boys took this information and summarized it into 12 areas of male disadvantage in the global context. These areas include Education, Health, the Boy Crisis, and many others.

But these persistent areas of male disadvantage have been largely ignored by the mainstream media. So in November, the International Council will be holding the first-ever Men’s Equality Month. The highlight of the observance will be International Men’s Day on November 19. Dozens of groups around the world will be participating.

Men’s Equality Month will feature social media campaigns, educational workshops, press releases, and a Men’s Equality Month Reception at the United Nations in New York City on November 19.

The Social Media hashtags will be: #MensEqualityMonth #GenderEqualityForMen

For more information, visit: https://www.menandboys.net/mem/

A Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys & Men

An Open Letter to President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and the White House Gender Policy Council

Contact information: Coalition Chair: Dr. Warren Farrell, warren@warrenfarrell.com, 415-754-5233

January 9, 2023

Dear President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and the White House Gender Policy Council:

On November 13, the same day that Harvard Magazine reported a widening life expectancy gap between men and women, with men dying 5.9 years earlier than women on average, a new White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research was launched. While we fully support the well-being and health of everyone, we feel the need to point out that there are male health and well-being issues that you are not currently addressing.

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Mark W. Sutton is the author of How Democrats Can Win Back Men, available on Amazon. You also visit his site to connect to more of his writing at mark-sutton.com.

Examining 2024 Party Platforms

The Coalition formed in 2009 with the goal of convincing The White House, at that time occupied by President Obama, to create a Council for Boys and Men to serve as a complement to the one created for women and girls. Since that time, we have continued to advocate for such a council, regardless of the political party in power, and looked at each administration’s willingness to pay attention to the needs of boys and men.

As the 2024 election approaches, we look at the two major parties and examine their focus, or lack thereof, on issues affecting boys and men.

2024 Democratic Party Platform

On Monday, August 19, the Democratic Party released it’s official 2024 platform, and similar to its platform of 2016 and 2020, it again neglected to even mention important issues affecting our boys and men, such as 5.9 shorter life expectancies, poor educational outcomes, and high suicide rates, to name just a few possibilities.

I may be one of the few people who eagerly awaited the release of the 2024 Democratic Party Platform". I was hoping, against all odds, that the document might include at least a few references to some obvious and non-controversial men’s issues. Like, for instance, the fact that men are dying 5.9 years earlier than women. What is more important than life itself? Why not mention that the Democratic Party cares about male health and longevity? Or perhaps the fact that boys are struggling in education. Shouldn’t that be a talking point for Democrats who claim to care for education? Men are now only about 40% of college students. (There are many other men’s issues such as suicide, homelessness, and opioid overdoses; see Chapter 3 of my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men for a deeper dive on challenges boys and men are facing.)

But, it was not to be. Unfortunately, this document is even more neglectful of men than the 2020 and 2016 platforms. The platform appears to have been written with the assumption that Biden would be the Democratic nominee and was not edited to reflect the candidacy of VP Harris. It also follows the familiar pattern that I have noted in Biden’s messaging — his State of the Union Address, proposed budget, and other communications have consistently and completely ignored men, boys, and their legitimate issues.

Unbalanced: Democrats Ignore Men Again in 2024

I like to perform a word search to see how many times gender-specific words are mentioned. Here are the results from the 2024 Democratic Party Platform:

Three instances of the word men are in “men and women” phrases, so removing those, the numbers are:
Women: 79
Men: 1

These numbers are so lopsided that I don’t think we can call this unconscious bias, it’s just plain bias. It’s men’s issues that are being excluded from the platform.

The one remaining instance of the word “men” is criticizing Trump for hiring disproportionately male judges (p. 46). It’s a valid point, but not an issue that is focused on supporting the challenges that men are facing right now. There are numerous sections on women’s and girls’ issues such as abortion rights which I support 100% (p.48). I’m not suggesting they remove references to women and girls’ issues. However, it would be a stronger document if it were more balanced. Some other issues covered, such as LGBTQI+ issues (p.56), include a subset of men. There are some other strong points on renewable energy and environmental issues. However, there is absolutely nothing for men and boys specifically. That is unfortunate, and it’s both poor policy and strategy.

If you’re going to focus on issues that affect women and girls, it is only fair to focus on those legitimate issues that boys and men face, as well. And when you fail to do so, don’t be surprised when men vote for you at lower rates. It’s not complicated.

During the DNC, I listened to a live WAPO interview with Harris’ campaign manager Jennifer Dillon O’Malley who had also been running Biden’s campaign until he dropped out. She said, all voters should be able to “see themselves in the vision that the vice president is setting out…” (12:30). I found this comment so strange — the Democrats seem to be going literally out of their way to NEVER mention anything about boys and men. Democrats don’t mention men’s issues at all in the party platform, yet, I’m supposed to “see myself in the vision?” This is what I call the Democratic Disconnect with men, and it was on full display in this interview, at the DNC, and again in the 2024 Democratic Party Platform. I think the convention, overall, was a net positive for Democrats. But it was far from perfect, and the polling by gender shows that.

Democrats Still Trailing Significantly Among Men

I’ve been told by several readers that I was ahead of my time with my writing and research — the gender divide in voting has become a hot topic this year. Last weekend alone, here are two examples:

1. Newsweek recently published an article entitled Trump vs. Harris Poised To Be Largest Gender Divide in Election History” that included similar ideas as my book How Democrats Can Win Back Men. It notes multiple polls that show a continuation of the large gender voting gap. It refers to the Times/Siena poll from July 22-24 that shows men at -17% among Dems, and women at +14%, a 31% gap. The numbers may have improved somewhat since that poll, but Democrats are likely still trailing significantly among male voters. (Thanks to a reader from Virginia for sending!) Author Martha McHardy quotes Jackson Katz, PhD, who says: I have long argued that the Dems need to respond to this aggressively and speak directly to men, including young men, and say 'we see you, we hear you and we care about you.'
   
   Given that the gender voting gap may be large, and that Harris is trailing among men to Trump by a whopping 17%, shouldn’t they plan to close that gap by getting more men’s votes by speaking to them directly, while of course continuing to seek support among women? That seems like an obvious strategy that the party, particularly members of the platform committee and planners of the DNC, is apparently unaware of or for some reason unwilling to pursue.
2. Maureen Dowd’s New York Times article on Palantir founder Alex Karp. (Thanks to a reader from Marin for sending this in!) Dowd writes:
   Mr. Karp concurred with his friend Mr. Carville on the problem of drawing men to the Democratic Party, saying, “If this is going to be a party complaining about guys and to guys all the time, it’s not going to succeed.”

And later Dowd quotes Karp him again:

The unfortunate fact here is that this election is really going to turn on ‘What percentage of males can the Democrats still get?’

I’m not sure why the fact is “unfortunate,” but it’s nice to know a billionaire genius like Karp sees the importance of the male vote for Democrats. The subtitle of my book is Why Understanding Male Voters and Their Issues is Vital to Democratic Victory. As my analysis of exit polls reveals, since 1972, the modern era, Democrats have never lost an election when they have done equal to or better than -8% among men. And conversely, they have never won when they have lost men by more than 8%. I’m calling this fact Sutton’s Key, as it is a major key to the election.

I’m perplexed as to why the Democratic Party cannot put 2 and 2 together here. I’m not suggesting that there needs to be an exactly even word count in the Party Platform to attract men. In fact, I’m sure most voters don’t even read the platform. However, the document is important as it sets the tone for the party nationally, and some men generally get the sense that Democrats don’t care about them. That attitude was apparent at the convention where again, men’s issues weren’t discussed, at least in any of the speeches I heard.

Men and the DNC

Harris only had one brief mention of men in her discussion of reproductive rights. As I and others have said, men have reproductive rights as well. While of course abortion rights, just one category of reproductive rights, affect women most directly, there are numerous things from IVF to nonconsensual paternity that affect men. In her DNC acceptance speech, regarding “reproductive freedom,” Harris said:

Well, I will tell you, over the past two years, I’ve traveled across our country, and women have told me their stories. Husbands and fathers have shared theirs.

It was good to hear at least one inclusive mention of men by Harris. Walz, of course, also spoke to that while accepting the VP nomination. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Walz’s own experience that informed that particular line in Harris’s speech. Walz’s speech also appealed to men in some ways, I believe. For instance, he referred to his time as a football coach and urged Democrats to “leave it [all] on the field.” He appealed to moderate or even conservative men with the line, “Look, I know guns. I'm a veteran. I'm a hunter, and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I got the trophies to prove it.” And of course, Walz projects a positive image as a father and husband and had that touching moment where his son Gus shouted, “That’s My Dad!” which I wrote about in my post last week. But that appeared to be a spontaneous moment of joy, a beautiful one, rather than a carefully crafted talking point focused on men.

Other than the lack of attention to men’s and boys’ issues, I was impressed by both Harris and Walz, as well as many of the Democratic speakers. These folks are professional orators, and it showed. Talk about pressure…they all handled it well. I thought Harris hit on a great many of the other important themes in a way that Biden had been unable to. Polling, while still indicating a toss-up, is much better today than it was for Democrats last month.

Of course there are issues like the economy, inflation, jobs, and the Middle East that affect everyone, and men care about these, too. But Democrats still trail significantly among male voters, and the Democrats’ messaging didn’t do anything to address that deficit specifically, which I believe was a mistake.

2024 Republican Party Platform

In 2020, the Republican Party reused it’s 2016 document, so this is the first new Republican platform in eight years. The 2024 Republican Party Platform is available on the Republican Party website.

The document is dedicated to: “To the Forgotten Men and Women of America.” So right up front, the Republican’s at least offer a statement of inclusivity. As our coalition knows, there are indeed a lot of men and boys who feel forgotten by our government, so acknowledging this at least speaks to many people who feel their views are not being reflected in government policies.

The platform then lists 20 promises, only one of which is related to gender. The topic is gender identity and the developing issue of trans athletes and students at college. Number 17 says, “KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS” (capitalization in original). Ten chapters follow, with another mention of this issue in Chapter 9, Section 5:
“5. Republicans Will End Left-wing Gender Insanity
We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex
change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.”

So this isn’t really a men’s issue per se, and it is framed as protecting women.

In total the word count for gender related terms is less and more balanced than the Democratic Platform:

Men: 5
Women: 6

Three of these are in the context of the phrase, “men and women, ” leaving:

Men: 2
Women: 3

These remaining instances are all connected to the aforementioned gender/sports issues, and that’s all the mentions of men and women in the document.

One final point is that many people feel that the Republican Platform was intentionally leaving out key goals that are instead included in the so-named “Presidential Transition Project,” Project 2025. This project is much more thorough and gets into many more specific issues than the Republican Platform.

Conclusion

Rather than focusing on one gender over another, the Republican Platform wants to make clear the distinction between male and female, but otherwise does not go out of its way to focus on the issues of men or women specifically, unlike the Democratic Platform which does so for women but not men. The Democratic Platform has numerous issues for women and girls, and for some subsets of men and boys such as the LGBTQI+ community, but none for men and boys as a whole.

Despite the major challenges facing boys and men today, neither party has made any indication that it plans to create a White House Council on Boys and Men or similar type of body at the national level.

The Boy Crisis - Discrimination Against Men and Boys - Title IX
CBS News Sunday with Jane Pauley

University of Vermont has men's gender equity / diversity center in Women's Center. This sound like President Biden's White House Gender Policy Council which excludes all males of all races.

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We're missing a major mental health crisis: Teen boys are struggling, too

The Washington Post, by Jennifer Fink, April 14, 2023

Sheila Hedstrom-Pelger, a nurse in Chandler, Ariz., thought she knew the signs of depression. She had sought professional help for her oldest son, Alex, when he admitted feelings of hopelessness, sadness, anxiety and suicidal thoughts while in high school. But when her second son, Tyler, started verbally lashing out at her when he was a teen, Hedstrom-Pelger didn't consider depression as a possible cause for Tyler's out-of-character behavior.

"I took it personally," she said. "I assumed he was upset with me."

Only after Tyler's suicide at age 17 did Hedstrom-Pelger learn that "irritability is a sign of depression and anxiety" for many males, "not just a 'boy being a boy' or 'being a teenager,' " she said.

Being male is the biggest risk factor for suicide, yet that fact isn't widely known, says Richard V. Reeves, author of "Of Boys And Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What To Do About It" and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution. In the United States, nearly four times as many males die of suicide than females, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

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A silent crisis in men's health gets worse

Across the life span -- from infancy to the teen years, midlife and old age -- boys and men are more likely to die than girls and women

The Washington Post, By Tara Parker-Pope and Caitlin Gilbert, April 17, 2023

A silent crisis in men's health is shortening the life spans of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons.

For years, the conventional wisdom has been that a lack of sex-specific health research mainly hurts women and gender minorities. While those concerns are real, a closer look at longevity data tells a more complicated story.

Across the life span "from infancy to the teen years, midlife and old age" the risk of death at every age is higher for boys and men than for girls and women.

The result is a growing longevity gap between men and women. In the United States, life expectancy in 2021 was 79.1 years for women and 73.2 years for men. That 5.9-year difference is the largest gap in a quarter-century. (The data aren't parsed to include differences among nonbinary and trans people.)

"Men are advantaged in every aspect of our society, yet we have worse health outcomes for most of the things that will kill you," said Derek Griffith, director of Georgetown University's Center for Men's Health Equity in the Racial Justice Institute. "We tend not to prioritize men's health, but it needs unique attention, and it has implications for the rest of the family. It means other members of the family, including women and children, also suffer.'

The longevity gap between men and women is a global phenomenon, although sex differences and data on the ages of greatest risk vary around the world and are influenced by cultural norms, record keeping and geopolitical factors such as war, climate change and poverty.

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Andrew Yang and Warren Farrell on The Boy Crisis

The Forward Party's Andrew Yang discusses his own research and that of Dr. Warren Farrell in Dr. Farrell's Book "The Boy Crisis"

Watch the video ..

Most Mass Shooters "Dad-Deprived Males": Author Warren Farrell

The Epoch Times, April 22, 2021, BY ZACHARY STIEBER AND JAN JEKIELEK

Key commonalities for most mass shooters in the United States are that they are male and that they lack a father figure in their lives, author Warren Farrell says.

"There's common denominators among mass shooters, the most obvious is that they're male". "98 percent are male. A second common denominator is that they're almost all dad-deprived males," Farrell told The Epoch Times American Thought Leaders.

People who carry out mass shootings at schools in particular tend to be boys who are suicidal, depressed, and dad-deprived.

In one example, a recent school shooter in Indianapolis did not have a father because in his early teens, his dad committed suicide. In another case, Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 in a mass shooting in Las Vegas, experienced his father imprisoned and went lengthy periods of time without seeing him. Adam Lanza, who authorities say opened fire in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, also did not often see his father, who was divorced from his mother.

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The White House Gender Policy Council Excludes Males - Satirical Video

In a White House executive order of March 2021, a new White House Gender Policy Council was established. This was designed to support equity and equality for all genders. However, the MALE gender was left out.

Watch this satirical video for an insightful take.

Created by Legacy Productions: https://legacyproductions.org

Jordan B Peterson Interviewing and Discussing With Dr. Warren Farrell - The Boy Crisis, The Importance of Fathers in Children's Lives and Gender Equality History

Fascinating coversation and interview with two amazing people, great minds, Dr. Jordan B Peterson, Canadian Professor, University of Toronto, clinical psychologist and life changing mentor with American ex-NOW director and gender expert Dr. Warren Farrell, author of world class best selling books like Why Men Earn More, The Myth of Male Power and The Boy Crisis

This is 1 Hour and 35 minutes of some of the best gender history of America and the women's movement since it began by a previous NOW Board member

About 650,000 views on YouTube

308,0000 on Jordan Peterson's Youtube channel and 339,000 on Warren Farrell's Youtube channel, as of October 12, 2021

Watch on Youtube

GUEST COLUMN: Boys who hurt us are also boys who are hurt

The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Guest Columnist - Warren Farrell - April 5, 2021

Two mass shootings in rapid succession have intensified the sense of insecurity in an already vulnerable American public. Yet as schools open, the insecurity will deepen if we remain unaware of how to avert the perfect storm that predicts an unprecedented increase in school shootings.

A mass shooting is more than a multiple homicide. It is also a suicide (either literally or practically). It is a boy or man hurting enough to also end his own life. That is, boys who hurt us are also boys who are hurt.

We can sense this with Atlanta shooter Robert Aaron Long, who appears to have hated himself for a sex addiction that was in fundamental conflict with a religion requiring pre-marital sex prohibition. We can say he hated Asian-American women. But in fact he desired the women, hated himself for desiring the women, and likely hated any woman who serviced his conflicted desires.

We can similarly sense the hurt and pain of the Colorado shooter, Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, an event that was triggered in part by being bullied by his peers for being a Muslim.

If we hope to minimize mass shootings, then, we need to minimize the pain that is causing our pain. For starters, we need to be pro-active in identifying young men who are depressed and suicidal. They are often angry at being rejected both by others and themselves. Yet instead of helping them express their anger constructively, we shame them into repressing their anger, only to be 'shocked' when their volcano erupts, and bewildered as we bury our dead.

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Black Fathers Address To President Biden on The White House Gender Policy Council Including The Black Fathers' Experience

Dr VIBE is the host of "Black Men Talking", "Dads Talking" "Man, Listen"... among other shows

Dr.VIBE, The Dr. Vibe Show, dominates the Internet when it comes to hosting intelligent, entertaining conversations on race and gender. His experience as a TV reporter injects an extra dose of thoughtfulness into all of his interviews, setting him apart from the average online broadcaster.

Sylvester Witter is a well known advocate for boys and men with the added dimensions of being Black and a Father. His experience in mentoring boys is essential to helping boys and men develop and achieve.

For Immediate release:

The Colorado and Atlanta Mass Shootings: Boys Who Hurt Us Are Boys Who Hurt

March 25, 2021

By Warren Farrell, Ph.D

Despite two mass shootings leaving virtually every American feeling some degree of insecurity, President Biden failed to even acknowledge them, no less suggest a plan to avert future shootings. What was missed in this omission?

In Dr. Warren Farrell's research for The Boy Crisis, he uncovered 63 red flags of depression and suicide that warn us that a boy or man may be hurting. A mass shooting is both a multiple homicide and a suicide (either literally or practically)'that is, a boy or man hurting enough to also end his own life.

The Boy Crisis identifies four things that mass shooters have in common:
1. They are male (almost 100%)
2. They are boys who are hurt (e.g., the 63 red flags)
3. They are dad-deprived (about 80-90%)
4. They have guns (by definition)

Read the Full Press Release

Who We Are

In 2009 a multi-partisan coalition of many of the nation's leading experts articulated the depth of the boy crisis, its threat to America's future, and the need for a White House Council on Boys and Men to address its multiple facets.

In 2019, on Sixty Minutes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell ranked the boy crisis as one of the two biggest threats to America's economic future.

Dr. Warren Farrell, the chair of the Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men, explains the boy crisis in his TEDx talk which can be viewed on this website.

And here is Fed Chair Powell's warning about the boy crisis on 60 Minutes [see 11:00-12:41].

FOX Primetime: "Gender" Policy Council Ignores Boys in time of COVID

The Primetime host, Rachel Campos-Duffy, has nine children. She "gets" Dr. Warren Farrell's argument as to why excluding boys and involved dads from the White House Gender Policy Council is a disaster to children. Especially boys in school--or not in school--during COVID.

Click above to watch on this website or watch on YouTube Watch on YouTube

Myth of Male Privilege; WH Gender Council Ignores Boy Crisis; "Father Warriors"

Message To President Biden About The Boy Crisis And Including All Genders in The White House Gender Policy Council

Watch the video of Warren Farrell, and Deb Blum

Click above to watch on this website or watch on YouTube Watch on YouTube

This one-pager offers a quick intro to the need for a White House Council on Boys and Men. As does this video. Here is the full proposal for the White House Council on Boys and Men Coalition Interviews 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidates on a White House Council on Boys and Men

Full interview of Coalition with John Hickenlooper:

This story in Colorado Politics on their dialogue was syndicated throughout Colorado. USA Today Features Plea to Create White House Council on Boys and Men

USA Today: 'Boy crisis' threatens America's future with economic, health and suicide risks Martha MacCallum tweets Pres. Trump re: White House Council after Dr. Farrell's appearance

After the El Paso and Dayton shootings, Dr. Farrell explains why dad-deprived boys account for the vast majority of male prisoners, ISIS recruits and mass shooters. The Boy Crisis: Causes and Solutions

Dr. Warren Farrell on FOX and Friends in 2019 suggests that President Trump create a White House Council on Boys and Men to call the boy crisis to national attention and the development of 'Father Warriors' as one of many solutions. May, 2019: Staten Island Council on Boys and Men Becomes Only Active Government Entity Concerned with Boys' and Men's Issues 2015: Boy Crisis, Fatherlessness, and Presidential Candidates

This video presents Dr. Warren Farrell, chair of the Coalition, and other members discussing these issues in 2015 with Republican presidential candidates Scott Walker, Rick Santorum, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal. Ingraham's Angle Recommends White House Council on Boys and Men

How You Can Help

Watch this video to see how you can help boys and men meet the presidential candidates in New Hampshire and Iowa in 2019, as they did in 2015, to get them to call the boy crisis to national attention and the need for a White House Council on Boys and Men as one solution .

Your donations to the work of the Coalition to Create a White House Council on Boys and Men through PayPal and Network for Go