Do we really need an International Men's Day?

Article here. A fairly well balanced article on International Men's Day. Excerpt:

'So do we really need an international day for men? In a world where us chaps are still running politics, business, religion, media and sport, it seems only fair that the ladies have had their own international day for over a century, but for the men to muscle in with a day of their own day, well, it’s not very gentlemanly, is it?

And yet all is not well in the state of “Man Land”.

We know that men in the UK are still dying four years sooner than women, on average; that 12 men each day take their own lives; that 90% of rough sleepers are men; that 95% of the prison population is male; that seven out of ten murder victims are male; that girls are outperforming boys at every stage of education; that women are a third more likely to go to university than men; that young men account for 70% of long-term youth unemployment; that male graduates are 50% more likely to be unemployed; that men in their twenties are earning less than their female peers; that 96% of people who die at work are male and that men accounted for 84% of suicides linked to the recession.

If women and girls were experiencing any one of those problems at the rate that men and boys are, it would be grounds for an international day in its own right - so why are we so indifferent to the various problems that are more likely to impact the male half of the population?
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This year the day has inspired people around the country to hold events which include a special meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood in Westminster; a public debate about men and violence in Preston and the Guardian journalist Ally Fogg raising money for male victims of sexual abuse by staying silent for the day - a move that has delighted both his fans and critics in equal measure.

If you don’t normally talk about “men’s issues”, then today is the perfect opportunity to stick this article under the nose of every man you know and ask him what he thinks. Do it now, before your one-track mind wanders elsewhere, because despite what the cynics might tell you, not every day is International Men’s Day.'