There’s something the matter with boys
Posted on July 17th, 2023
Rohan Pethiyagoda
Boys’ academic outcomes are sinking at an unprecedented rate. At university, girls now outnumber boys by two to one. Here, in a speech to an international policy workshop organized by the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka, I venture into the minefield of political impropriety and argue that boys and girls should not be treated equally when it comes to education. I show also that unless we fix this problem, we risk serious societal outcomes, not just when it comes to crime but also to political outcomes. BREXIT and Trump, after all, were in large measure results of revolts by the ‘uneducated’ against the elites. While I do not offer prescriptions (to do so in a data vacuum would be foolish), society, and especially feminists, must sit up and take notice, if for no other reason, then purely from self-interest.