译者：蒋小强
乍一看，我们完全处于男权社会。全球90%以上的总统和总理，几乎所有大公司的老板，是男性。在金融、技术、电影、运动、音乐，甚至单口相声等领域，男性占绝对优势。在世界不少地方，男性仅凭性别原因，就享有一些社会及法律特权。为男性的困境担忧，似乎显得不合时宜。
AT FIRST glance the patriarchy appears to be thriving. More than 90% of presidents and prime ministers are male, as are nearly all big corporate bosses. Men dominate finance, technology, films, sports, music and even stand-up comedy. In much of the world they still enjoy social and legal privileges simply because they have a Y chromosome. So it might seem odd to worry about the plight of men.
然而，这种担心并非多余。一方面，男性在社会上层占有优势，另一方面，男性在社会底层大量聚集。同女性相比，底层男性更易犯罪收监、更易被子女疏远，更易想不开而自杀。在学历方面，他们比女性更难获得本科文凭。在发达国家，基础数学、阅读和科学三门课程均不及格的学生中，男生人数比女生多一半。
Yet there is plenty of cause for concern. Men cluster at the bottom as well as the top. They are far more likely than women to be jailed, estranged from their children, or to kill themselves. They earn fewer university degrees than women. Boys in the developed world are 50% more likely to flunk basic maths, reading and science entirely.
男性中遭遇困境最突出的群体是低学历人群。在过去半个世纪以来，发达国家中文化水平较低的男性，在如何应对劳工市场、择偶婚恋方面发生的巨大变化时，遇到了很大困难。科技和贸易的迅猛发展，使强壮体力的价值大大贬值，低学历男性发现，找到合适工作的机会太少。女性遇到的情况，又是另一片天地。凭借她们特有的出色技能，女性大量进入医疗保健和教育领域工作。在教育水平显得越来越重要的同时，男生在学校教育阶段总体落后于女生（一流尖子生群体除外）。在制造业就业的男性一旦失业，常常无法再就业。而没有任何工作的男性，在择偶婚恋市场，毫无吸引力。这产生一个可怕又有害的结果，对于低学历低技能男性，容易变成“三无”人员：无工作、无家庭、无希望。
One group in particular is suffering. Poorly educated men in rich countries have had difficulty coping with the enormous changes in the labour market and the home over the past half-century. As technology and trade have devalued brawn, less-educated men have struggled to find a role in the workplace. Women, on the other hand, are surging into expanding sectors such as health care and education, helped by their superior skills. As education has become more important, boys have also fallen behind girls in school (except at the very top). Men who lose jobs in manufacturing often never work again. And men without work find it hard to attract a permanent mate. The result, for low-skilled men, is a poisonous combination of no job, no family and no prospects.
家庭由大一统开始分化
From nuclear families to fissile ones
左翼政治家倾向于从经济方面分析。他们说，针对男性的工作机会不断减少，使他们贫困无力自拔、家庭更易分裂。在美国，从1979年到2013年，仅有高中文凭的男性群体，收入下降了21%（扣除物价因素），而类似的女性群体，收入增加了3%。目前，在美国，处于劳动年龄阶段、仅有高中文化的男性群体，有五分之一没有工作。
Those on the political left tend to focus on economics. Shrinking job opportunities for men, they say, are entrenching poverty and destroying families. In America pay for men with only a high-school certificate fell by 21% in real terms between 1979 and 2013; for women with similar qualifications it rose by 3%. Around a fifth of working-age American men with only a high-school diploma have no job.
右翼政客更担心失业男性群体家庭关系不稳的问题。大多数女性喜欢找既能挣钱、又能顾家的伴侣。但在嫁个无业人员还是保持单身之间选择的话，她们宁愿选择后者，因为失业男性在挣钱和照看家庭两方面，都不满意。在美国，无业男性群体在做家务或照看家人方面用去的时间，仅有类似女性群体的一半。无业的男性会花更多的时间看电视。
Those on the right worry about the collapse of the family. The vast majority of women would prefer to have a partner who does his bit both financially and domestically. But they would rather do without one than team up with a layabout, which may be all that is on offer: American men without jobs spend only half as much time on housework and caring for others as do women in the same situation, and much more time watching television.
于是蓝领阶层家庭分裂问题出现了。在精英阶层，父母共同养育孩子是惯例，而贫困阶层，情况大不一样。在发达国家，从1980年至今，非婚生育小孩占小孩出生总数的比例增长三倍，达到了33%。在传统制造业完全衰退的地区，这一比例高达70%，或者更高。在破碎家庭成长的孩子，同完整家庭抚养的孩子相比，接受学校教育更少，中途辍学更多，就业后挣得更少，在组建和稳固自己小家庭方面，也更不擅长。
Hence the unravelling of working-class families. The two-parent family, still the norm among the elite, is vanishing among the poor. In rich countries the proportion of births outside marriage has trebled since 1980, to 33%. In some areas where traditional manufacturing has collapsed, it has reached 70% or more. Children raised in broken homes learn less at school, are more likely to drop out and earn less later on than children from intact ones. They are also not very good at forming stable families of their own.
从经济、社会两个层面分析这个问题，彼此时常交叉。但二者的解释并不矛盾。底层男性群体面临的经济问题、社会问题都应引起重视，都需要我们承担责任去解决。这两方面问题还相互影响、相互强化。而且，这些问题有可能变得更糟。科技进步使更多传统产业消失，为社会带来福利，但让未能成功更新技能的传统工人失去工作。作为智库的经合组织（OECD）预言，在几乎所有发达国家，单亲家庭的绝对数量将继续增加。在成长环境中没有父亲陪伴的男孩，更可能无法建立稳固的家庭或伴侣关系，形成父亲侧功能障碍，并导致恶性循环。
These two sides often talk past each other. But their explanations are not contradictory: both economics and social change are to blame, and the two causes reinforce each other. Moreover, these problems are likely to get worse. Technology will disrupt more industries, creating benefits for society but rendering workers who fail to update their skills redundant. The OECD, a think-tank, predicts that the absolute number of single-parent households will continue to rise in nearly all rich countries. Boys who grow up without fathers are more likely to have trouble forming lasting relationships, creating a cycle of male dysfunction.
补锅匠、裁缝、士兵、理发师
Tinker, tailor, soldier, hairdresser
我们能做些什么？文化心态的改变可以提供部分解决办法。从上一代开始，中产阶级男士知道了帮助妻子共同照看小孩很有必要，他们的行为习惯由此改变了。普通工人阶层的男士需要迎头赶上。女性已经明白，她们能成为外科医生或物理学家，同时并不丢失女性魅力。男士们需要了解，传统的体力工作已经一去不复返了，他们成为护士或者美发师，不会减弱男子气概。
What can be done? Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes. Over the past generation, middle-class men have learned that they need to help with child care, and have changed their behaviour. Working-class men need to catch up. Women have learned that they can be surgeons and physicists without losing their femininity. Men need to understand that traditional manual jobs are not coming back, and that they can be nurses or hairdressers without losing their masculinity.
政策制定者们也需要伸出援手，因为让男性问题变得更糟的是那些愚蠢的法律。在美国，能结婚的男士数量在减少，因为有几百万非暴力犯罪的男性被关在监狱，这些人出狱后就业更难（比如，在佐治亚州，重罪犯不允许饲养猪只、参加消防或者到殡仪馆工作）。许多富裕国家通过削减穷人福利（如果有的话）让贫穷的男士更难结婚或者与伴侣一起生活。
Policymakers also need to lend a hand, because foolish laws are making the problem worse. America reduces the supply of marriageable men by locking up millions of young males for non-violent offences and then making it hard for them to find work when they get out (in Georgia, for example, felons are barred from feeding pigs, fighting fires or working in funeral homes). A number of rich countries discourage poor people from marrying or cohabiting by cutting their benefits if they do.
比废除愚蠢政策更为重要的是对教育制度的重构，目前的教育制度形成于传统社会，那时男性大多靠体力工作。政治家们需要认识到，男孩子们在学校阶段成绩不良是一个严肃的问题，需要着手去解决。一些对每个学生都有利的明智政策，对男生格外有利。幼儿教育能培养男童更多组织意识，提供男童发展语言和社交能力的更好机会。在对并不擅长学业学术的男生进行激励教育并引导他们进入工作方面，德国等有成功职业教育体系的国家，比盎格鲁.撒克逊国家做得更好，但决策者们需要重新改造职业教育，以适应受教育者们更可能去医院而不是工厂就业的时代。
Even more important than scrapping foolish policies is retooling the educational system, which was designed in an age when most men worked with their muscles. Politicians need to recognise that boys’ underachievement is a serious problem, and set about fixing it. Some sensible policies that are good for everybody are particularly good for boys. Early-childhood education provides boys with more structure and a better chance of developing verbal and social skills. Countries with successful vocational systems such as Germany have done a better job than Anglo-Saxon countries of motivating non-academic boys and guiding them into jobs, but policymakers need to reinvent vocational education for an age when trainees are more likely to get jobs in hospitals than factories.
更概括地说，学校需要变得更有利于男生发展。学校应该承认，男生比女生更喜欢东奔西跑：让男生参加大量有组织的体育活动和特别消耗能量的游戏，远比给他们服用利他林（治疗多动症的药）或者对他们的躁动不安严加训斥好得多。学校还需要提供更多的男性榜样：在小学招聘更多的男性教师，让男生有机会同成年男士相处并建立认同，还能看到男教师除了教书还可充当消防战士的多样性。
More generally, schools need to become more boy-friendly. They should recognise that boys like to rush around more than girls do: it’s better to give them lots of organised sports and energy-eating games than to dose them with Ritalin or tell them off for fidgeting. They need to provide more male role models: employing more male teachers in primary schools will both supply boys with a male to whom they can relate and demonstrate that men can be teachers as well as firefighters.
男女更加平等是战后以来取得的最大成就之一：无论男性还是女性，都拥有了比以往任何时候都更大的实现抱负的机会。但是，一部分男士在应对新世界时失败了。是时候对他们施以援手了。
The growing equality of the sexes is one of the biggest achievements of the post-war era: people have greater opportunities than ever before to achieve their ambitions regardless of their gender. But some men have failed to cope with this new world. It is time to give them a hand.
