International Men’s Day (IMD) is celebrated on 19th November every year and is marked in around 80 countries worldwide.

To help more people get involved and mark the day, the Australian Men’s Health Forum (AMHF) has launched a new International Men’s Day website under the theme “Talking About Men”.

Australia is one of the World’s healthiest societies, yet our men and boys die younger; experience more disease and have less access to support services than women and girls.  So why do men of all backgrounds have less chance of living healthy lives?

Source:  UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESO) has published a policy paper on gender equality in education that warns “don’t forget the boys”.

Boys’ Education is a key men’s health issues as lower levels of education are linked to poorer health. Put another way, improving boys’ education, improves men’s health. 

According to UNESCO, boys are at greater risk of failing to progress and complete their secondary education in many countires. Moreover, boys perform increasingly less well in assessments of reading skills worldwide, a fact that continues to puzzle policy-makers.

As the UN’s sustainable development goals have committed the world to achieving universal completion of secondary education by 2030, it is important to take note of boys’ continuing disadvantage in several countries at this level, says the report.

UNESCO also claims that actively addressing boys’ disadvantage in education could be transformative in promoting gender equality, reducing violence and protecting youth from risk factors that could distort their futures.

The agency’s paper describes the extent of the problem, examines where and why it occurs and explores possible solutions. It concludes that entrenched gender norms negatively affect the education outcomes not only of girls, but also of boys.

Gender expectations pull poor boys out of school and into unskilled jobs that do not require secondary school completion, say the report’s authors.

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Achieving gender equality in education: don’t forget the boys