‘We can’t pit boys against girls’: headlines overshadow struggles of a generation of girls

Article here. As predictable as the sunrise, turn an issue facing boys into a concern for girls. Excerpt:

'But while public debate has focused on the crisis facing boys, a series of less remarked upon statistics suggest that girls are far from being the winners of a zero-sum game. The Children’s Commissioner for England told the Guardian this week that the current debate risked pitting boys and girls against each other – to the detriment of both.

“This is an optimistic generation, eager for change – but both boys and girls are facing pressures and influences that previous generations never imagined,” said Rachel de Souza. “We can’t pit boys against girls, because these are shared issues for every child.”

Last month a report from the Centre for Social Justice argued that the last 100 years had “been marked by great leaps forward in outcomes and rights for women” but in this generation “it is boys who are being left behind”. The Lost Boys report noted that in education girls were outperforming boys “from nursery to university”, while men aged 16-24 were more likely to be unemployed than young women, and if in full-time work, paid on average 9% less.'