By: Hugh Wilson
Did men make progress in 2012, or take a backward step?
The year just gone may have been a great one for you, or a miserable one. It may have been full of romance and riches, or drudgery and disappointment.
But what about men as a whole? Was the world a little kinder to men in 2012 than it was in 2011, or a little more cruel? And does it make us more or less optimistic for the future?
We weigh up the evidence.
Health
There's always plenty of bad news around about men's health, especially when we compare ourselves to with women.
We smoke and drink too much, indulge in riskier behaviours, have more serious accidents, get into more fights and are less likely to see a doctor when we are genuinely ill.
But while all this is true, news in 2012 did at least confirm an encouraging trend. Men are living longer.
Earlier this year Professor Leslie Mayhew, a statistician at City University, London, crunched some numbers and calculated that British men could soon be living as long as – and maybe even longer than – women.
Professor Mayhew found that men who make it out of their 20s will soon be regularly living to an average of 87. Many men will be living longer still, effectively closing the longevity gap with women.
Good news indeed.
Crime
Part of that increase in longevity might be because fewer men are becoming the victims of violent crime. And here too there was more good news for men in 2012.
Men have always been more likely to fall victim to violence than women. Some men seek it out, of course, but many more simply get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The good news is that violent crime continues to fall, and quite dramatically according to figures released earlier this year. They suggested violence was down about 9% year on year. More encouragingly still, homicides have now been cut by about half since a peak in 2001/2.
Men are usually the victims (as well as the perpetrators) of violent crime, but 2012 confirmed that innocent men are less likely to get caught in the crossfire than at any time in decades.
Fathers' rights
There's also been some progress on the contentious issue of fathers' rights. This year the government announced its intention to enshrine the concept of shared parenting in law.
What that means is that all parties will be expected to do their level best to come to an agreement on access to children after divorce that both parents are happy with.
The onus will be on mediation rather than conflict, with a shared parenting agreement that sets out when each parent has the children, for how long and what happens during (for example) school holidays.
Shared parenting doesn't mean a 50/50 split in the time children spend with each parent. But it does mean the law will recognise that, after divorce, everybody is best served if both parents continue to have a meaningful relationship with their children. Many fathers will consider it at least a step in the right direction.
Economics
But of course, 2012 wasn't all good news for men. The biggest downside to the year was undoubtedly the continuing economic squeeze, which is hitting men particularly hard.
Both sexes have suffered job losses and reduced incomes, of course, but there is mounting evidence that the psychological effects of recession hit men hardest.
In October, for example, the Social and Public Health Sciences Group in Glasgow published a study of 100,000 people that discovered higher rates of anxiety and depression in men linked to recession.
As one academic not connected with the study said: “Males derive much of their esteem from occupational success.”
In other words, as well as having less money to spend, men are losing one of the pillars that support their self-esteem, making the continued downturn a double whammy for men.
Education
And men are not using education to prepare themselves for the economic challenges ahead, at least not as much as women. For the past few years women have been outperforming men at university, and girls outperforming boys at school. This year only saw that trend continue.
Across UK universities in 2012, 984,000 female undergraduates are studying for degrees, compared with 713,000 men. The gap is expected to widen in future years.
To add a particularly sour cherry to that bitter cake, 2012 was also the year that female IQ overtook male IQ, at least according to a study released in July. The study also found that female IQ continued to rise at the faster rate.
2012: good or bad?
So was 2012 a good or bad year for men? The economy ensured that it was an anxious one for many men, though that was true for many women too.
But on some issues that specifically affect men – or at least affect them disproportionately – the story is more upbeat. Progress has been made on men's health, the chances of falling victim to violence, and fathers' rights.
Education is a worry, though even here there was one glimmer of good news. A Level grades released in the summer showed boys narrowly outperforming girls at the A* grade for the first time, even if girls remained more likely than boys to achieve grades in the upper range of A* to B.
Assuming the economy will pick up at some time, 2012 was peppered with encouraging signs. In many cases they may have been nothing more than toddler steps in the right direction, but at least we weren't going backwards.
Did men make progress in 2012, or take a backward step?
The year just gone may have been a great one for you, or a miserable one. It may have been full of romance and riches, or drudgery and disappointment.
But what about men as a whole? Was the world a little kinder to men in 2012 than it was in 2011, or a little more cruel? And does it make us more or less optimistic for the future?
We weigh up the evidence.
Health
There's always plenty of bad news around about men's health, especially when we compare ourselves to with women.
We smoke and drink too much, indulge in riskier behaviours, have more serious accidents, get into more fights and are less likely to see a doctor when we are genuinely ill.
But while all this is true, news in 2012 did at least confirm an encouraging trend. Men are living longer.
Earlier this year Professor Leslie Mayhew, a statistician at City University, London, crunched some numbers and calculated that British men could soon be living as long as – and maybe even longer than – women.
Professor Mayhew found that men who make it out of their 20s will soon be regularly living to an average of 87. Many men will be living longer still, effectively closing the longevity gap with women.
Good news indeed.
Crime
Part of that increase in longevity might be because fewer men are becoming the victims of violent crime. And here too there was more good news for men in 2012.
Men have always been more likely to fall victim to violence than women. Some men seek it out, of course, but many more simply get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The good news is that violent crime continues to fall, and quite dramatically according to figures released earlier this year. They suggested violence was down about 9% year on year. More encouragingly still, homicides have now been cut by about half since a peak in 2001/2.
Men are usually the victims (as well as the perpetrators) of violent crime, but 2012 confirmed that innocent men are less likely to get caught in the crossfire than at any time in decades.
Fathers' rights
There's also been some progress on the contentious issue of fathers' rights. This year the government announced its intention to enshrine the concept of shared parenting in law.
What that means is that all parties will be expected to do their level best to come to an agreement on access to children after divorce that both parents are happy with.
The onus will be on mediation rather than conflict, with a shared parenting agreement that sets out when each parent has the children, for how long and what happens during (for example) school holidays.
Shared parenting doesn't mean a 50/50 split in the time children spend with each parent. But it does mean the law will recognise that, after divorce, everybody is best served if both parents continue to have a meaningful relationship with their children. Many fathers will consider it at least a step in the right direction.
Economics
But of course, 2012 wasn't all good news for men. The biggest downside to the year was undoubtedly the continuing economic squeeze, which is hitting men particularly hard.
Both sexes have suffered job losses and reduced incomes, of course, but there is mounting evidence that the psychological effects of recession hit men hardest.
In October, for example, the Social and Public Health Sciences Group in Glasgow published a study of 100,000 people that discovered higher rates of anxiety and depression in men linked to recession.
As one academic not connected with the study said: “Males derive much of their esteem from occupational success.”
In other words, as well as having less money to spend, men are losing one of the pillars that support their self-esteem, making the continued downturn a double whammy for men.
Education
And men are not using education to prepare themselves for the economic challenges ahead, at least not as much as women. For the past few years women have been outperforming men at university, and girls outperforming boys at school. This year only saw that trend continue.
Across UK universities in 2012, 984,000 female undergraduates are studying for degrees, compared with 713,000 men. The gap is expected to widen in future years.
To add a particularly sour cherry to that bitter cake, 2012 was also the year that female IQ overtook male IQ, at least according to a study released in July. The study also found that female IQ continued to rise at the faster rate.
2012: good or bad?
So was 2012 a good or bad year for men? The economy ensured that it was an anxious one for many men, though that was true for many women too.
But on some issues that specifically affect men – or at least affect them disproportionately – the story is more upbeat. Progress has been made on men's health, the chances of falling victim to violence, and fathers' rights.
Education is a worry, though even here there was one glimmer of good news. A Level grades released in the summer showed boys narrowly outperforming girls at the A* grade for the first time, even if girls remained more likely than boys to achieve grades in the upper range of A* to B.
Assuming the economy will pick up at some time, 2012 was peppered with encouraging signs. In many cases they may have been nothing more than toddler steps in the right direction, but at least we weren't going backwards.
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