Why Young Men Are Giving Up

Commentary

Something is happening to young men in Canada, and we are remarkably reluctant to talk about it. They are falling behind in education, too many are withdrawing from the workforce, and they are forming families later, if at all. Some remain in their parents’ homes well into adulthood, while others retreat into video games, social media, and an online world that offers distraction without much purpose.

The educational numbers should have set off alarms years ago. Among Canadians aged 25 to 34, 76 percent of women have attained tertiary education compared with 58 percent of men, and the OECD reports that women now substantially outperform men across important measures of educational attainment. In 2024, 12.4 percent of Canadian males aged 15 to 29 were neither employed nor in education or training, and among men aged 25 to 29 the figure was 14.6 percent.

These numbers should concern everyone, regardless of politics, because work provides much more than a paycheque. It creates discipline, competence, independence, and the knowledge that other people depend upon you. A society that loses large numbers of young men from productive work eventually loses something much bigger than their economic output.

Economic conditions are clearly part of the explanation, with housing increasingly unaffordable and stable employment harder for many young people to establish. Automation, globalization, and the decline of traditional blue-collar employment have also eliminated many of the jobs through which previous generations of men entered the middle class. But economics alone cannot explain what is happening, because culture and public policy matter too.

For years, governments, universities, and corporations embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that categorized people according to race and sex. Whatever their original intentions, too many of these programs moved away from equality of opportunity toward preferred outcomes among selected groups. Young men notice scholarships for which they cannot qualify, employment initiatives directed toward somebody else, and hiring processes that explicitly seek particular identities.

We should never respond to discrimination against one generation by institutionalizing discrimination against another, and the answer should always be equality of opportunity and individual merit. Conservatives should be equally careful not to make the opposite mistake by telling young men they are victims and encouraging them to embrace resentment. Young men do not need another form of identity politics; they need purpose, opportunity, and the expectation that they can succeed.

That begins with schools that challenge boys and expect them to perform, while recognizing that university is not the only path to a successful life. We need apprenticeships, skilled trades, and vocational education treated with the same respect we give university degrees. A young man who becomes an electrician, soldier, police officer, mechanic, carpenter, or entrepreneur should understand that his contribution is every bit as valuable as someone carrying a university credential.

Young men also need institutions that demand something of them and give them somewhere to belong. For generations, families, churches, sports organizations, military service, community associations, and workplaces helped transform boys into men by teaching discipline, responsibility, teamwork, and service. Many of those institutions have weakened at precisely the same time that smartphones, social media, and virtual communities have assumed an extraordinary influence over young people’s lives.

There are warning signs that we should not ignore, including the fact that Canadian males remain almost three times as likely as females to die by suicide. Acknowledging the problems facing men does not diminish the challenges facing women, nor does helping boys require taking anything away from girls. Canada should begin with a simple principle that every young person deserves the opportunity to succeed and that neither race nor sex should determine who deserves our encouragement.

That means restoring merit to hiring and education, expanding apprenticeships and vocational training, and rebuilding civic organizations that provide mentorship and belonging. It also means speaking positively again about responsibility, marriage, fatherhood, service, and work rather than treating masculinity itself as something requiring an apology. A healthy society needs good men who work, build businesses, raise children, coach hockey teams, volunteer in their communities, defend their country, and accept responsibility for people other than themselves.

For decades, we rightly told young women that there should be no limit to what they could accomplish, and our society is better because we did so. We should bring the same sense of possibility to young men without diminishing the achievements or opportunities of women. A generation of young men is searching for meaning and purpose, and it is time we started telling them that society needs them, too.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.