These boys lost in the forest

“We should read more essays and studies in politics. » The sentence came out without warning, during an interview with Marwah Rizqy. The liberal MP thought of everyone: journalists, elected officials and herself.

Our interview was to focus on the new dashboard of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville. The idea is very good – Quebec actually lacks data on the network. Moreover, we could go even further in collecting and sharing information. But this is where M^me Rizqy linked to a recent reading, Under-education of men and women’s choice of professionpublished by Robert Lacroix with Catherine Haeck, Claude Montmarquette and Richard Ernest Tremblay.

“Of course we need to know better what is happening in the network. But we should also not be led to believe that this is what prevents action. There are well-documented problems about which little is done. Like the academic difficulties of young boys…”

During his announcement, Mr. Drainville mentioned the possibility – and not the firm intention – of drawing up a ranking of schools in the medium term. It was the little controversy of the day, the tree on which everyone focused their attention. However, an entire forest lay behind it, ready to contemplate.

Among these issues which have become a backdrop that we no longer notice, there is the delay of boys.

A year ago, my colleague Yves Boisvert devoted a long column to the essay the MP is talking about¹. Since then, the news has continued to flow. She is more interested in daily emergencies than in tragedies that continue with banal regularity.

Here is the portrait again, in a few lines. For the high school graduation rate, the gap between boys and girls exceeds 10 percentage points.

According to the 2018 international PISA survey, our boys perform slightly better in mathematics. But in reading comprehension, there is a frightening gap: almost 30 percentage points to the advantage of girls.

Subsequently, approximately three out of four girls will enter CEGEP. For boys, it’s barely one in two.

Nearly 70% of university admission applications are made by young women. “I see it when I go to speak at universities,” says M.^me Rizqy. In the last few months, I started putting out the numbers. In commerce, there are 60% women. In law, 70%. Healthy, 80%. It is enormous… “

The file is delicate, because it is easily recoverable. To analyze it, you must forget your preconceptions and approach the figures with an open mind, agreeing to tolerate the apparent contradictions and shades of gray.

First of all, this issue clashes with the militant fight which aims to talk about gender instead of sex, by calling into question these social constructions considered arbitrary. It does, in fact, exist. But there are also objective biological differences between the sexes. Studies demonstrate a fragility associated with boys. Very young, they show, on average, a cognitive and language delay compared to girls. Finally, they are more likely to be autistic or engage in dangerous behavior.

This is not unique to Quebec. The same phenomenon is observed elsewhere. School does not create this difference either. But it fails to alleviate it.

If this goes unnoticed, it is partly because on the job market, men still earn more than women. Their activity rate is also higher. Parity has not been achieved for women in positions of power either. And there is obviously all the violence suffered by women.

Binary thinking encourages you to choose sides. However, we should help everyone who needs it. Being particularly concerned about the fate of little boys is not the same as denying that differences between the sexes are partly cultural and that women suffer discrimination. This fight is compatible with feminism.

This is also what M.^me Rizqy by pleading for a reflection that goes beyond the controversies of the day. The reader who immerses himself in a long text is more willing to understand the world in all its complexity.

I am also adding another work to your reading list: The sexual paradox by Susan Pinker, a psychologist from McGill University. She analyzes the biological and cultural differences between the sexes and examines several taboos, such as the low participation of women in “STEM” (science, technology, engineering, mathematics).

Quebec offers a “Hats off to the girls!” program. » for science students. “But why are we not planning anything to attract boys, for example, into teaching, who could also serve as models? », asks M^me Rizqy.

Based on the book Under-education of men…,M^me Rizqy provides other examples of government initiatives that ignore known data.

Here we touch on another taboo. The CAQ government, like its predecessor, wants to encourage school perseverance, in particular by directing interested boys towards professional training (plumber, electrician, etc.) instead of the secondary diploma (DES). Indeed, you don’t need to go to university to succeed in life. Such jobs can be well paid and rewarding. Mr. Drainville draws inspiration from Switzerland and Germany, which rely on these courses.

It is very good. But couldn’t we at the same time work on the regular training of boys? M^me Rizqy points out that a university graduate earns on average a better salary, is less likely to see their job replaced by automation and is also less likely to suffer a work accident or have to take early retirement to take care of their body.

Beyond isolated initiatives, no major national measures have been taken, deplores M^me Rizqy. And even if it doesn’t always make the headlines, it remains a small scandal.

In fact, the scandal may be that it doesn’t make the headlines more often.

1. Read the column “The taboo of educational inequality for boys”