“A rising tide lifts all boats.”— John F. Kennedy

• This is the first generation of young men likely to achieve less education than their fathers and to find themselves on a lower rung of the socioeconomic ladder.
• Men now account for only four of every ten undergrads.
• The more educated a woman is, the more reluctant she is to “marry down” in terms of education and lifetime earning potential.
• Where there is a large educational gap between partners, divorce is more likely, and the struggles of children who go through divorce are well documented.
• College-educated people of both genders are more likely to get married and are much more likely to stay married.
• The decline in marriage rates has been greatest among men with less education.
• Those without a college education find it harder to stay employed in a rapidly changing work environment.
• Roughly three-quarters of the job losses inflicted by the 2008 U.S. recession fell on men.
• Marital conflict usually occurs when a man works less than his wife, or becomes unemployed.
• One in three married, working women today out-earns her husband—up from one in ten in the 1970s.
• Men who are economically dependent on their female partners are more likely to cheat on them. Women dependent on male partners are less likely to cheat.
• Two-thirds of all divorces are legally initiated by women.
• The poorer the household, the more likely parents are to send a girl rather than a boy on to college. This abrupt change from previous times reflects the parents’ desire to apply limited resources to the child who does best in school.

And finally, highlighting the ominous long-term effects of an imbalance: Children of unemployed fathers seem particularly vulnerable to psychological problems, are more likely to repeat a grade in school and to earn less as adults.

On a more positive note, “When boys’ test scores go up, so do girls’ scores,” says therapist and educator Michael Gurian in The Purpose of Boys. When adolescent boys find education to be purposeful and relevant, they are less defiant and more willing to learn, which frees girls up from having to deal with hours and days of behavioral problems around them.

Excerpted from Jump- Starting Boys: Help Your Reluctant Learner Find Success in School and Life, by Pam Withers and Cynthia Gill (Viva Editions). All references (footnotes) contained in the book.