Boys are often brought up to believe that when the going gets tough, the tough gets going—don’t complain, buckle down and work hard to achieve the result you want. Dr. Warren Farrell, PhD, contends that this mentality could actually be a part of the problem that he describes as “the boy crisis” in his book of the same name, which came out in March.
Dr. Farrell, who has been researching and writing about male/female issues since the late 1960s, spent 11 years researching boys and their development after seeing a UNESCO study that boys in many developed countries were beginning to fall behind girls in nearly all academic subjects. He found that boys are suffering in their development for a number of different reasons, but the most notable are boys that grow up without father involvement. This will be the focus of his discussion at a Busboys and Poets, Shirlington, presentation of his book on June 14.
“There were two groups that were having major problems,” Farrell explains, “that is boys from families that were divorced, where the father was not involved, and boys from homes where the mother had children without being married,” as fathers or father figures in the latter case are generally unlikely to be involved with the children after the age of 3.
While all children are impacted by the lack of involvement of a father, Farrell found boys to be more heavily impacted, especially in instances where boys would go on to hurt themselves or others. Drugs, gangs, mass shootings and even ISIS recruitment are all a greater risk for boys who had minimal father involvement, Farrell states. “Among the biggest [mass shootings] … since 1948, 26 out of the 28 of them have been boys or men, and their backgrounds have had a lack of father involvement.”
Dr. Farrell will show this evidence in more detail during the event, but he also wants to try and take action and has extended invitations to local community leaders and legislators. Farrell will have the influencers in attendance meet in groups to discuss ways to address these issues either through policy or some other action.
One such action, which Farrell has been pushing for since the Obama administration as the chair of its coalition, is the creation of a White House Council on Boys and Men. “Fathers are the only career that will last a lifetime for most males,” says Farrell, so they need a resource that will help develop and lead programs that can quell these issues.
The event, “The Boy Crisis and What D.C. Community Leaders Can Do About It,” will take place on June 14 from 6-9 p.m. // Busboys and Poets: 4251 Campbell Ave., Arlington
