On March 9, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order creating a White House Gender Policy Council, with a mission to promote gender equality and equity. However, men, who as we have noted earlier are a large reason Biden was elected, are not included in the mission of the council.
The council plans to “guide and coordinate government policy that impacts women and girls,” with not a single mention of boys and men. This attitude is completely misguided, and the fact that the leadership of both this country and the council do not understand this in 2021 is incredibly disheartening to those who support true equality under the law. Men and boys are just as affected by government policy as women and girls, and have just as many needs.
While we of course support the well-being of women and girls, the facts bear out the idea that boys and men are doing much worse in a whole host of areas. Therefore, the White House Gender Policy Council should also examine and help support boys and men’s issues. Let’s look at a few topics focused on the well-being of boys and men that the gender policy could look into, just for starters:
In the United States in 2021:
Men die approximately 6 years earlier than women, yet the government has a Department of Women’s Health, and none for men. How about creating a Department of Men’s Health to help men live equally as long as women? That would be a great project for the White House Gender Policy Council.
Only men are required to register for selective service registration, ie availability for the draft, a clear violation of the equal protection clause. Remedying that would be a great project for the White House Gender Policy Council.
Boys are significantly underperforming girls at all levels of education. It has gotten to the point that at the college level, women are earning approximately 60% of degrees, compared to 40% for men. That means women are earning 50% more degrees than men! Fixing this by helping more young men earn degrees, so that they are equal with women, would be a great project for the White House Gender Policy Council.
The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and 93% percent of prison population is male — this is a gender issue that affects males. How can we simultaneously lower the incarceration rate for men and still lower the crime rate? A combination of fixing the criminal justice system, and supporting the raising of boys with a multitude of efforts to support fatherhood and boys education, would be a good start. The goal should be to reduce the number of men incarcerated to be equal to that of women, while reducing crime. This would be a perfect project for the White House Gender Policy Council.
Gender inclusive language is institutionalized for women, when we use gender neutral terms like committee chair, fire fighter, and postal carrier. However, we do not do the same for men. For instance, the Biden-authored Violence Against Women Act, or VAWA, seems to deny the existence of male victims of domestic violence. It could be changed to something gender neutral, such as the Domestic Violence Prevention Act. This would be a great goal for the White House Gender Policy Council.
One more: the Title IX statute prevents discrimination by gender for any educational institution receiving federal funding. However, hundreds of institutions have been violating this with impunity for decades by creating female-only programs, including the illustrious Stanford University which recently had complaints filed for a whopping 23 female-only programs that violated Title IX. Making sure that all institutions comply with the law, and treat men and women equally, would be another great project for the White House Gender Policy Council.
Notice how all of these support the mission of “gender equality and equity” while supporting the well-being of boys and men. Hehim.org is calling for the Biden White House Gender Policy Council to immediately rewrite its mission to include boys and men, and to adjust its members and goals accordingly. Anything less is completely antithetical to the stated purpose of the council.
