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The War Against Boys: How Misguided Policies are Harming Our Young Men Hardcover – August 20, 2013

by Christina Hoff Sommers (Author)

4.7 658 ratings

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An updated and revised edition of the controversial classic, now more relevant than ever, argues that boys are the ones languishing socially and academically, resulting in staggering social and economic costs.

An updated and revised edition of the controversial classic—now more relevant than ever—argues that boys are the ones languishing socially and academically, resulting in staggering social and economic costs.

Girls and women were once second-class citizens in the nation’s schools. Americans responded w ith concerted efforts to give girls and women the attention and assistance that was long overdue. Now, after two major waves of feminism and decades of policy reform, women have made massive strides in education. Today they outperform men in nearly every measure of social, academic, and vocational well-being.

Christina Hoff Sommers contends that it’s time to take a hard look at present-day realities and recognize that boys need help. Called “provocative and controversial . . . impassioned and articulate” (The Christian Science Monitor), this edition of The War Against Boys offers a new preface and six radically revised chapters, plus updates on the current status of boys throughout the book.

Sommers argues that the problem of male underachievement is persistent and worsening. Among the new topics Sommers tackles: how the war against boys is harming our economic future, and how boy-averse trends such as the decline of recess and zero-tolerance disciplinary policies have turned our schools into hostile environments for boys. As our schools become more feelings-centered, risk-averse, competition-free, and sedentary, they move further and further from the characteristic needs of boys. She offers realistic, achievable solutions to these problems that include boy-friendly pedagogy, character and vocational education, and the choice of single-sex classrooms.

The War Against Boys is an incisive, rigorous, and heartfelt argument in favor of recognizing and confronting a new reality: boys are languishing in education and the price of continued neglect is economically and socially prohibitive.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Simon & Schuster
Publication date

August 20, 2013
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

1451644183
ISBN-13

978-1451644180
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Christina Hoff Sommers is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise institute in Washington, D.C. She has a PhD in philosophy from Brandeis University and was formerly a professor of philosophy at Clark University. Sommers has written for numerous publications and is the author of Who Stole Feminism? How Women Have Betrayed Women. She is married with two sons and lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

WAR AGAINST BOYS / Christina Hoff Sommers

PREFACE

When the first edition of The War Against Boys appeared in 2000, almost no one was talking about boys’ educational and social problems. Now it’s hard to open a newspaper without stumbling upon references to the multiple books, articles, studies, and documentaries highlighting boys’ academic, social, and vocational deficits. So is the war over? Not yet.

Although many educators recognize that boys have fallen far behind girls in school, few address the problem in a serious way. Schools that try to stop the trend, through boy-friendly pedagogy, literacy interventions, vocational training, or same-sex classes, are often thwarted. Women’s lobbying groups still call such projects evidence of a “backlash” against girls’ achievements, and believe they are part of a campaign to slow further female progress.

The recent advances of girls and young women in school, sports, and vocational opportunities are cause for deep satisfaction. They should not, however, blind us to the large and growing cohort of poorly educated young men in our midst, boys who are going to be lost in our knowledge-based economy. To address the problem, we must acknowledge the plain truth: boys and girls are different. Yet in many educational and government circles, it remains taboo to broach the topic of sex differences. Gender scholars and experts still insist that the sexes are the same, and argue that any talk of difference only encourages sexism and stereotypes. In the current environment, to speak of difference invites opprobrium, and to speak of boys’ special needs invites passionate, organized opposition. Meanwhile, one gender difference refuses to go away: boys are languishing academically, while girls are soaring.

In the first edition of the War Against Boys, I focused primarily on how groups such as the American Association of University Women, the Wellesley Centers for Women, and the Ms. Foundation were harming our nation’s young men. These organizations and their doctrines are still very much with us. But in this revised edition, I describe the emergence of additional boy-averse trends: the decline of recess, punitive zero-tolerance policies, myths about juvenile “super-predators,” and a misguided campaign against single-sex schooling. As our schools become more feelings-centered, risk-averse, competition-free, and sedentary, they move further and further from the characteristic sensibilities of boys.

However in the 14 years since the War Against Boys was first published, England, Australia, and Canada have made concerted to efforts to address the boy gap. In these countries, the public, the government, and the education establishment have become keenly aware of the increasing number of underachieving young males. In stark contrast to the United States, they are energetically, even desperately, looking for ways to help boys achieve parity. They have dozens of commissions, trusts, and working groups devoted to improving the educational prospects of boys. Using evidence and not ideology as their guide, these education leaders speak openly of male/female differences and don’t hesitate to recommend sex-specific solutions.

“Success for Boys,” for example, is an Australian program that has provided grants to 1,600 schools to help them incorporate boy-effective methods into their daily practice.[i] In Great Britain, ten members of Parliament formed a Boys’ Reading Commission and published a comprehensive report in 2012.[ii] It offers educators a “tool kit” of successful practices. Paul Capon, president of the Canadian Council on Learning, acknowledges the political temptation to avoid or deny the problem of male underachievement. Still, he says, “You have to ask what is happening, and you have to ask why. It’s a head-in-the-sand, politically correct view to say there’s no problem with boys.”[iii] In the United States, our education establishment remains paralyzed with its head in the sand.

The subtitle of the first edition was “How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men.” The emphasis on misguided—I did not intend to indict the historical feminist movement, which I have always seen as one of the great triumphs of our democracy. But some readers took the book to be an attack on feminism itself, and my message was lost on them. In this edition, I have sought to make a clearer distinction between the humane and progressive women’s movement and today’s feminist lobby. That lobby too often acts as a narrow, take-no-prisoners special interest group. Its members see the world as a zero-sum struggle between women and men. Their job is to side with the women—beginning with girls in the formative years of childhood.

Most women, including most equality-minded women, do not see the world as a Manichean struggle between Venus and Mars. The current plight of boys and young men is, in fact, a women’s issue. Those boys are our sons; they are the people with whom our daughters will build a future. If our boys are in trouble, so are we all.

In the war against boys, as in all wars, the first casualty is truth. In this updated edition, I give readers the best and most recent information on “where the boys are.” I say who is warring against them and why; I describe the best scientific research on the issues in debate; and I show readers the high price we will pay if we continue to neglect academic and social needs of boys. I also suggest solutions.

This book explains how it became fashionable to pathologize the behavior of millions of healthy male children. We have turned against boys and forgotten a simple truth: the energy, competitiveness, and corporal daring of normal males are responsible for much of what is right in the world. No one denies that boys’ aggressive tendencies must be mitigated and channeled toward constructive ends. Boys need (and crave) discipline, respect, and moral guidance. Boys need love and tolerant understanding. But being a boy is not a social disease.

To appreciate the growing divide between our educational establishment and the world of boys, consider this rare entity: a boy-friendly American school. In June of 2011, I visited the Heights School, an all-male Catholic academy outside Washington, D.C. As I approached, I saw a large banner that said “Heights School: Men fully alive.”

The school is thriving. There is new construction and a population of 460 fully engaged male students, grades three through twelve. Competition is part of the everyday life of the students, and awards and prizes are commonly used as incentives— but this competition is deeply embedded in an ethical system. The younger boys (ages 8-10) attend class in log cabins filled with collections of insects, plants, and flowers. They memorize poetry and take weekly classes in painting and drawing. At the same time, the school makes room for male rowdiness.

The day of my visit, the eighth grade boys were reenacting the Roman Battle of Philippi in 42 BC, which they had studied in class. The boys had made their own swords and shields out of cardboard and duct tape, emblazoned with dragons, eagles, and lightning bolts. For more than an hour, they marched, attacked, and brawled. At one point, a group of warriors formed a classic Roman “tortoise”—a formation with shields on all sides. Another battalion charged full-speed into the tortoise. Younger boys gathered on the sidelines and catapulted water balloons into the fray. It was pandemonium.

I asked the principal if the boys ever get hurt. Not really, he said. Anyway, one of his first lectures to parents concerns the “value of the scraped knee.” There weren’t even scraped knees in the battle I observed—just boys having about as much fun as there is to be had.

The Heights School is an outlier. Sword fights, sneak water balloon attacks, and mock battles hold a special fascination for boys, but most of today’s schools prohibit them. Play swords and shields? Those, even in miniature, invite suspension. Boys charging into each other? Someone could get hurt (and think of the lawsuits). Young males pretending to kill one another? A prelude to wife abuse. Gender scholars have spent the past 20 years trying to re-socialize boys away from such “toxic” masculine proclivities. And a boys school? The American Civil Liberties Union has recently joined forces with a group of activist professors to expose and abolish the injustice of such invidious “segregation.” For them, what I saw at the Heights School is not “men fully alive”—it is gender apartheid.

The war against boys is not over. It is fiercer than ever. But the stakes have risen, the battle lines have become clearer, and here and there one sees signs of resistance and constructive action. My second edition is dedicated to inspiriting the forces of reason and, eventually, reconstruction.

NOTES

Preface

[i]. Success for Boys, “Outline,” Australian Government Department of Education, Employment, and Workplace Relations.

http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/BoysEducation/Pages/success_for_boys.aspx (accessed 19 September 2012).

[ii]. Boys Reading Commission, “All Party Parliamentary Literacy Group Final Report,” National Literacy Trust, July 2, 2012. http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0001/4056/Boys_Commission_Report.pdf (accessed 19 September 2012).

[iii]. Carolyn Abraham, “Failing boys and the power keg of sexual politics,” The Globe and Mail, October 15, 2010.

One: Where the Boys Are

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reissue edition (August 20, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1451644183
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1451644180
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,369,794 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Hu(man)

A PRECARIOUS SITUATION

Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2013

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The author writes (p. 199): "The public has given no one a mandate to pursue a policy of privileging girls." And yet, as Christina Hoff Sommers repeats in the revised edition of her 2000 book, a small group of ideological feminists have claimed that Americans should do that, and from many quarters there is evidence that they have. This "New and Revised Edition" of "THE WAR AGAINST BOYS" is a welcome return of an important book. Sommers, a philosopher by education and a mother of two boys, shows that the trend she identified in the late 1990s to see boys as defective girls and therefore somehow in need of retooling has continued, and its effects have spread. The importance of Sommers' book lies especially in pointing out the misrepresentations of fact by leading advocates of making over boyhood. She takes to task the reputation of a major research institution for having missed oversight of assertions presumably based on scientific investigation that are, in fact, wishful thinking on the part of high-profile faculty. Her target is Carol Gilligan in particular, who managed to convince important activists, journalists and others in the media about the presumed defectiveness of boys that results from the dominance of patriarchy in American society. Go to this book if you are a parent. Take it to school administrators especially if your children are in grade school but realize that contempt for men and masculinity is now pervasive in higher education as well. If you are paying $50,000+ a year for a son's education, check out what courses are being taught that are disparage the young men in class. Sommers is a feminist in the way anyone who is clear-thinking is a feminist: someone who supports women in having access to education and employment opportunities of every kind. She is, however, a potent opponent of ideological feminists (contemporary "gender equity" feminists). As Sommers points out, regardless of the claims of social constructivists, boys and girls are different, and they cannot be refashioned to feel and experience and act in ways that are not part of their disposition (her word). There are biobehavioral realities that are well-documented but simply ignored by a small group of feminists (male and female) who insist loudly that even the possibility of basic differences between the sexes exist. She is a fan of masculinity in the traditional sense. It is pretty obvious that so are MOST women, too. Sommers provides examples of schools that harm boys and schools that support them. She points out that federal government opposes many initiatives in public and private schooling that would support boys in their growing up. She notes that in Australia and the UK such efforts to do better by boys are under way, but they are nipped in the bud in the States, mostly by virtue of the threat of law suits. She points to the complicity of all three branches of the federal government in standing in the way of even trying boy-friendly practices in school. Finally, she repeats that the tendency of thinking of boys as somehow psychologically ill as a result of being raised as their bodies tell them they must experience the world must be distinguished from the consequence of real harm suffered by boys in an environment that tells them there is something wrong with them for being boys. This is an important book for speaking out on behalf of boys and cutting through the rhetoric and false claims of so-called gender specialists who have taken over academe and whose pronouncements resound in the echo chamber (her metaphor) of the media.

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RickM

The Fall of America

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2014

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Excellent book, I recommend it to anyone that has a little more intelligence than a chimpanzee. Boys and girls are anatomically different, also the brain is wired differently. There is not such thing as one is better than the other. Both sexes complement. Chimpanzees feminist think that placing skirts on boys and lipsticks is an equal society.
While other countries are designing education that serves better for either boys and girls, or even more diverse individuals in specialized classes. Australia, New Zealand, and U.K. Not to mention a lot of asiatic countries. USA is becoming weaker by the day. Our mothers that have this mentality betray Mother Nature and every principle of morality. USA is going to be under cyber attack, a lot of countries had lost respect for us. While other nations recognize strengths and weaknesses of each sex they will have the advantage in any aspect of society. Both sexes can be equally intelligent and capable of many things but can not perform equally in a communistic view of the so called feminist movement. By the way, I am a legal resident in the USA, English is not my first language. But the largest tread to national security of this great nation is internal. I am scientific enthusiast and real social statistics should be able to be replicated, representing all population. Bare on mind that statistical data can be manipulated to give a result that you want to hear. I am married with no kids, we were not able to conceive. But we have only 4 nephews no nieces. I wonder how they will fare with the ideal of these women to attack such innocent minds. If it was on my power I will concede in this war of them a win. On the sole issue of a moral that this does not lead to any good. Kindness, equality is not reached with tie up numbers in statistics; it only enforce a sex war that is no benefit to society at all. Women and feminist had betrayed a lot of Americans already. I am a man that will not concede to place a skirt or lipsticks to be equal to a woman. I do not want to be a woman. My wife at this moment was giving me a lecture that I should not express my opinion because that is not a manly thing to do. I should be stoic with my lips closed. There is no bigger betrayal to this country, by stating George Washington is less important than Marilyn Monroe.

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Cliente Amazon

A honest, disturbing and open eyes book

Reviewed in Spain on March 1, 2023

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Passionate and well argumentated book about how actually boys are the ones discriminated and mistreated in schools and education. Parents may recognize some situations on their sons by first hand

One person found this helpful

Fiweezy

We've always been told that there is a war against ...

Reviewed in Canada on August 13, 2017

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We've always been told that there is a war against girls, but the real war is against boys. Christina Hoff-Sommers, the factual feminist, talks about how our society treats its young boys and men. A must read!

One person found this helpful

Guillaume Duclouet

Une analyse des dérives du féminisme en matière d'éducation

Reviewed in France on July 7, 2015

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Cet ouvrage n'est pas destiné aux amateurs du politiquement correct ni aux défenseurs invétérés du féminisme. Mais à ceux curieux des tendances profondes qui influencent l'évolution de notre société.

L'auteur, professeur de philosophie pendant 15 ans, écrivit ce livre à la fin des années 1990, puis l'a repris dans une nouvelle édition, afin de mettre à jour notamment les études scientifiques sur lesquelles elle s'était appuyée en premier lieu. Elle évolue dorénavant au sein de l'American Enterprise Institute, plutôt proche de l'aile réaliste du parti républicain.

Ce livre aborde la manière dont le système éducatif américain, après une longue évolution débutée dans les années 1980, a progressivement rendu la vie de plus en plus difficile aux garçons à l'école. Bien que centré sur les Etats-Unis, le livre évoque également la Grande-Bretagne et l'Australie, et ses leçons sont tout à fait valides pour la France (bien que les chiffres soient différents bien entendu).

L'auteur évoque tout d'abord les nombreux programmes fédéraux américains développés en matière d'éducation au cours des 30 dernières années qui ont, et souvent à juste titre, largement favorisé et soutenu la progression des jeunes femmes au sein du système scolaire et universitaire afin de compenser le désavantage historique dont elles avaient souffert. Bien que reconnaissant un certain mérite à ces programmes, l'auteur tient à mettre en exergue très vite les conséquences néfastes, voire parfois désastreuses, que ces réformes du système scolaire américain ont eu sur les garçons. C'est à ce titre, en documentant très sérieusement ses assertions, qu'elle dénonce les manigances d'une partie du lobby féministe, totalement sourd à ce drame.
L'auteur démontre scrupuleusement comment les jeunes garçons sont vite stigmatisés dans un environnement éducatif devenu extrêmement féminisé, tant au regard du personnel qu'au regard des valeurs qui y sont désormais véhiculées. Elle s'indigne du fait que les garçons risquent de devenir très rapidement le 2ème sexe, alors même que le lobby féminin et les hommes politiques à sa botte continuent de faire la sourde oreille, et continuent de ne se préoccuper que de l'avancement des jeunes femmes.
L'auteur dénonce, dans la logique des débats sur la théorie du genre qui animent les cercles universitaires américains, mais également français, la volonté de certaines féministes de changer la nature masculine.

S'appuyant sur du bon sens, et armée d'arguments incisifs, Christina Hoff Summers jette un véritable pavé dans la mare pour prendre la défense de la vaste entreprise d'émasculation entreprise à l'encontre de nos jeunes garçons, et pour défendre une société où hommes et femmes évolueraient à égalité, dans le respect des différences de chacun.

A rapprocher, bien que très différent dans l'approche, du livre "Nos garçons en danger" du psychologue français Stéphane Clerget.

Enfin, la version Kindle est impeccable.

7 people found this helpful

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Steven

in pre school and primary school do better academically. You would think that better educated boys ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 2, 2015

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This book details how feminists in the US have used fraudulent research, claiming girls to be in crisis when they are not and in fact it is boys who are being outperformed, to get special programs in schools for their own political ends.

The book also shows how feminists are interfering with boys normal harmless play. The author shows the type of behaviour that does cause harm in boys. As is happens when Tony Blair was the UK prim minister he pointed out research that shows that boys who play with boys stereotyped toys, including to toy guns, in pre school and primary school do better academically. You would think that better educated boys would be less violent rather than more.

Sommers points out the general types of educational settings that give better behaviour and academic results in boys including more guided learning and stricter discipline.

As it happens I was studying maths in the mid 1990's in Australia and our lecturers had to have a special meeting of all the maths students because the ability of maths and engineering students had fallen so badly in the previous 15 years. This happens to be the time when girls school and university marks went from behind to ahead of boys. That there should be a large overall reduction in ability when half the population has improved so much is hard to understand and is more like the legitimate advantages of boys are not being taught or assessed properly. Also during this time, and earlier, work kept being removed from high school science, such as parts of the REDOX and carbon chemistry electives for final year chemistry in 1984, and in every case girls marks improved.

Also while I was studying maths the state education minister Virginia Chadwick said the words "Boys read maps better, so we changed them." Boys tend to get the specific thing from the whole better due to their spatial advantage, say, which is a legitimate part of real world activity. This has lead to question types to be created that are designed to get answers right, say by being more discrete, rather than including legitimate cognitive areas thus improving girls marks

I think the deliberate hindering of boys in school has lead to the above mentioned poor ability in the areas historically done well by boys in universities causing universities to have to dumb down the work where girls have had their problems as universities don't want high a failure rates. In 1994 all students where I studied were told that there would be a failure restriction of .15% in all classes with 30 or more in the class due to federal government funding changes. The maths degree did not have a single compliant subject although 15 years earlier before the girls improved at school and university as much the maths people would not have had a problem with this failure restriction. When I did data structures only 30% of the class passed, all the girls failed, then the next time they had to pass 85%.

4 people found this helpful

Ilya Watteau

The feminist nightmare!

Reviewed in France on August 4, 2021

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This well-written book destroy with facts the common fallacy that girl are somewhat the gender failing in school. It also explain why some laws have been passed and why the school system is the way it is today. We should start to ask ourselves some though questions in France and start acting on it, because if we don't our future won't be pretty to look at.

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