| For centuries, families depended on their sons for their clans’ future prosperity. In the modern era, families have made a priority of investing their time and money in their sons’ schooling and training. But now, daughters are looking like the better bet.
Around the world, girls are getting higher grades than boys in every school subject—even in stereotypically male fields like science and math. Girls score higher on standardized tests and graduate with higher grade-point averages. In the United States, 89 percent of girls graduate from high school in four years, while only 83 percent of boys do.
All of which means more young women than young men are going to university—and getting the degrees that often determine how much they’ll earn as adults or even the careers they can pursue. Around 57 percent of male high-school graduates in the U.S. now enroll in college—a figure that’s barely moved in more than 60 years: In 1960, it was 54 percent. Back then, only 38 percent of female high-school grads went to college. Today, it’s 66 percent—and rising, every year.
For the young men left behind, the stakes are high. Their worsening performance is linked to fewer job prospects, lower earnings, poorer mental and physical health, and higher incarceration rates.
What’s the boys’ problem?
Ioakim Boutakidis is a professor of child and adolescent studies at California State University, Fullerton, a member of the American Psychological Association’s National Task Force on Boys in School, and a research fellow at the American Institute for Boys and Men. Boutakidis says that even after all these years, there just isn’t enough compelling evidence to say for sure one way or another. Biology seems to be part of it: Boys struggle to regulate their attention and behavior in a traditional classroom setting—and that setting looks very similar all over the world. It also seems boys have trouble connecting with their teachers: In the U.S., roughly three-quarters of public-school teachers are women. Globally, it’s two-thirds. In early childhood education, it’s almost 98 percent women in the U.S., only a few percent lower globally. And teachers tend to punish boys more often, and more severely, than they do girls.
What’s worse, Boutakidis says, boys’ poor performance has turned into a vicious circle. They start off behaving worse or getting lower scores than girls do. Then they sense teachers are frustrated with them or investing more time and energy with girls. And boys can see other boys having the same problems and feelings. As they understand they’re falling behind, many of them react by deciding that school and studying just aren’t for them. This is only leading them to worse results in school—and, increasingly, in their lives after it … |
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| CONNECTIONS / FROM THE MEMBER’S DESPATCH |
Fallout
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| It was a spectacular, public argument. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the White House on February 28, hoping to shore up support from the new U.S. administration for Kyiv in its war with Russia—and maybe sign a minerals deal with Washington, too.
But the Oval Office meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and other top U.S. officials turned into a stunning disaster. Vance berated Zelenskyy for not expressing gratitude to the U.S., and Trump told him that in peace negotiations, “You don’t have the cards.”
It all happened live, on camera. Afterward, the White House told Zelenskyy to go home; the formal meeting between the heads of state was canceled.
The public falling-out confirmed for many that the Trump administration would side with Moscow over Kyiv, and that Trump’s friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin during Trump’s first term would determine his second term, as well.
But since then, something’s changed … |
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| At the Oslo Freedom Forum, we come together to share bold ideas and build a future beyond the oppression of dictators. Join us in Oslo on May 26-28, 2025, and be part of a movement that dares to imagine. |
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| DEVELOPMENTS / WHAT WE’RE TRACKING |
| Election Sunday in Europe |
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Romania, Poland, and Portugal all held national elections on Sunday. In each, the centrist, pro-EU candidate or party got the most votes—and the populist right finished second.
- Romania: Nicuşor Dan, the centrist mayor of Bucharest, defeated George Simion, a far-right, pro-Russian candidate, for the presidency, even though Simion won the first round. Dan got about 54 percent of the vote, giving him a relatively—and unexpectedly—big victory. Turnout was very high, at almost 65 percent.
- Poland: Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist mayor of Warsaw, defeated Karol Nawrocki, a relatively unknown historian backed by the populist Law and Justice Party, in the first round of presidential elections. Trzaskowski got 31 percent; Nawrocki, 30 percent. Far-right candidates combined for more than 21 percent. The runoff between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will be on June 1.
- Portugal: The center-right Democratic Alliance of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro won snap elections with a little more than 32 percent, but votes were so fragmented that it looks tough for the party to form a stable government. The populist-right Chega party, led by André Ventura, tied for the second-most seats in Parliament—Chega’s best showing ever, though they finished a few thousand votes behind the Socialist party.
The pattern is striking, but the implications are still uncertain: Are all these centrist victories showing the electoral limits of the populist right, or are the overall vote totals a sign that the populist right is still getting stronger? |
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| Members play a crucial role in backing our mission to develop a new genre of independent current-affairs coverage—for less than one fine cup of coffee every couple of weeks. Support The Signal. |
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| Coming soon: Rashmi Joglekar on why it is so hard to get toxic chemicals out of food … |
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