In his February State of the State address, Maryland governor Wes Moore made a surprising announcement: that this year, his administration would “begin implementing targeted solutions to uplift our men and boys.” It’s clear from the data that men are struggling. Male suicides are sharply up, men have retreated from the labor force, boys trail girls in education, and Maryland sends kids—the vast majority of them boys—into the juvenile-justice system at about twice the national rate. “On every single indicator we care about,” Moore recently told Washingtonian, “young men and boys are falling off.”
It’s unusual for an elected Democrat to publicly speak about the struggles of men, let alone take steps to address them. To understand the significance of Maryland’s new initiative, we called Governor Moore and masculinity scholar Richard Reeves. Here’s what you need to know.
What, specifically, is Maryland going to do?
The boys and men initiative is in its early stages, so there’s not a lot of concrete policy detail right now. But Moore has directed all his cabinet secretaries and agency heads to bring him specific ideas for how the state can help men and boys. They’ll meet for the first time in April.
Are other states doing anything like this?
Nothing this sweeping. A smattering of other governors have made much narrower commitments to boys and men—Spencer Cox of Utah has created a task force on male wellbeing, for example, and Connecticut’s Ned Lamont is trying to recruit male K-12 teachers, which studies show can help boys feel more engaged in the classroom. In February, right after Moore’s State of the State, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer called out the struggles of boys and men in her own annual address, then announced an executive directive to try to get more men into Michigan’s colleges and skills training programs.
But Moore was “first out of the gate with a serious, substantive commitment to do more for boys and men,” says Richard Reeves, a masculinity researcher who founded the American Institute for Boys and Men. He added, “I do think that the penny has dropped very loudly now that there are some real issues facing young men, and whichever side of the aisle you’re on, it’s bad politics to ignore them.”
What convinced Moore that this was a priority?
“I always say that I’m data-driven and heart-led,” Moore told us. “And the data that we continue to see is just so clear and deeply disturbing.” It shows boys and men struggling with mental illness, falling behind in school, failing to navigate the labor market, and succumbing to addiction and crime. Moore was also hearing widespread concern about boys and men while meeting with various Marylanders: educators, community leaders, people running apprenticeship programs. He was particularly struck by his conversations with moms, who repeatedly told him things like “my son is great but frankly lacks motivation and will just sit there and play video games all day long.”…