June 5, 2018 3:00pm by David Farrar

So where is the fuss about these gender inequalities?

There are inequalities in society which are gender based. With some of them women are disadvantaged and with some, men are disadvantaged.

I’m all for reducing inequalities for women such as the gender pay gap, and the fact many more women get sexually harrassed and assaulted etc. This post is not an argument against that.

But there was a quote I saw along the lines that if there is an area where women face disadvantage, you get massive public campaigns about it. But in areas where men face disadvantage, there is a near total absence of activism or publicity.

This rang true to me. The gender pay gap for example gets massive publicity. Scores and scores of articles on the fact the average hourly wage for women is around 9.4% less than for men. Huge global campaigns on this. Government action statements etc.

How often do we see this for an area of male disadvantage? Very rare. This got me wondering how many areas are there where men do worse compared to women? So I started doing research. And you can see the results below.

So when people start going on about male privilege, maybe it would be nice to have some balance about all the areas where men have really bad outcomes.

Where are the ministries, the taskforces, the campaigns for these areas?

I’m not saying that overall women are more advantaged than men. It’s not a competition. What I’m saying is that there is a huge disparity in how we talk about areas of male disadvantage. As a society we are almost silent on it, while on issues such as a 9.4% pay gap we have endless publicity.

So here’s the areas to date I have identified where men or boys in New Zealand are disadvantaged.

Education – Secondary

11% less likely to get NCEA Level 1
7% less likely to get NCEA Level 2
14% less likely to get NCEA Level 3
25% more likely to leave school with no qualifications
Twice as likely to be a high (special) needs student
27% less likely to get UE
Three times more likely to be stood down, suspended
5 times more likely to be excluded or expelled

Education – Tertiary

42% less likely to be in tertiary education
36% less likely to obtain a diploma
37% less likely to obtain a bachelors degree
25% less likely to get Honours
37% less likely to get Masters
26% less likely to get a PhD

Crime

Twice as likely to be a victim of homicide
43% more likely to be assaulted by a stranger
Twelve times more likely to be in prison
Five times more likely to be sentenced for a crime
Eight times more likely to be sentenced to prison

Health

Seven times more likely to commit suicide
Six times more likely to be subject to a mental health compulsory treatment order
Seven times more likely to be a mental health special patient
113% more likely to be a hazardous drinker
67% more likely to drink drive
Twice as likely to be a user of hard drugs
10% more likely to get cancer
74% more likely to have coronary heart disease
31% more likely to have a stroke
270% more likely to have gout
11% more likely to have diabetes
Ten times more likely to have HIV/AIDs
Four years shorter life expectancy
24% more likely to be a smoker
11% more likely to be obese
28% more likely to have high blood pressure
33% more likely to have high cholesterol
46% more likely to have an intellectual disability
22% more likely to be hearing impaired