The other gender divide: where men are losing out | guardian.co.uk

The feminist movement is working to tackle misogyny and its many harmful consequences, but should it address misandry, the male equivalent, too? Photograph: Tim Wimborne/Reuters

It's difficult to deny that women suffer more than men as a result of their gender, and highlighting the myriad ways in which this happens is one of the cornerstones of modern feminism – which is currently enjoying a revival in the UK and elsewhere.

But justice isn't a relative concept. If it were, we could suggest we should care less about racism against black people just because Asian people in this country are more likely to be victims of racially-motivated hate crime.

Obviously that's nonsense. But so might be ignoring issues that affect men more severely than women just because women, overall, have it worse.

Delving into the data reveals a surprising array of areas in which men might have the hardest time. Here's six worth thinking about:

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Daughters financially better off than mothers, but sons... (USA)

Are young people better off than their parents? At least when it comes to income, the answer depends on gender. Today's young women make $1.17 for every $1 their moms earned back in 1980. Young men, however, are earning 10 cents per hour less than their fathers did 30 years ago, new research shows.

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In Praise of Men (North & South, NZ)

When I told a group of women friends I was going to write a celebratory essay about men, I picked up a faint, unspoken chill of disapproval. No matter that all of them are married to good men who trudge off to work every day, love their kids, clear the gutters and seem unlikely to suddenly declare they need a year off "to find themselves". But perhaps the women were more concerned than reproachful: writing in praise of men is risky business. It's inevitably interpreted as being anti-female, or at least anti-feminist, and every word must be inspected for unintended offence before being laid down on the page. Yet can you imagine tweaking the title of the book Why There Are No Good Men Left to Why There Are No Good Women Left - or Why There Are No Good Maori Left, for that matter? Even if the author of No Good Men intended to go beyond the cliche, she'd have been confident her female audience would be amused - and presumably didn't care if men were not.

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America's jobless men: Decline of the working man – The Economist (USA)

FRANCIS MCCLOSKEY lost his job at the Philadelphia city government’s information hotline in August 2009. Twenty months and more than 1,000 job applications later he is still out of work. He has attended scores of jobs fairs, sought help from job-search coaches and cold-called dozens of companies. This year he has been asked to only three interviews. Soon Mr McCloskey will join the growing ranks of “99ers”, Americans who have drawn jobless benefits for the maximum 99 weeks. His worry is plain: “I’m really drawing a blank on what I’ll do then.”

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Working with Young Males in Psychotherapy: Implications of the Findings of Boyhood Studies (USA)

Boys are now among the most challenging groups with whom we work as psychotherapists. During the past two decades, boyhood has received special attention, and with good reason: boyhood is being radically redefined. As a result, the number of vulnerable boys who require our attention and care has increased significantly. Some of them are just entering kindergarten; others are graduating from high school or college and manoeuvering their way in a world of work that has increasingly fewer places for them; a decreasing number are in graduate school. Ever more are disconnected, disaffiliated and adrift.