Where's the Council on Men and Boys?

Obama's Council on Women and Girls a misplaced gesture
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 18, 2009 10:52 AM CDT
Where's the Council on Men and Boys?
President Barack Obama waves after signing an executive order creating the White House Council on Women and Girls.   (AP Photo)

When President Obama last week created the White House Council on Women and Girls—a body that looks out for the fairer sex in federal policy-making—it seemed an almost laughable “act of paternalistic magnanimity,” writes Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post. Unfortunately, it also perpetuates “the false notion that girls are a special class of people deserving special treatment.” The truth is, boys need far more help these days.

The statistics Obama cited were all pretty shaky—the mantra that women earn 78 cents for every male dollar, for example, is bogus. Indeed, women are pulling ahead in many ways, earning 58% of all bachelor’s degrees. “Boys, meanwhile, are the ones dropping out of school or being expelled. They’re the ones failing, abusing drugs, and committing suicide.” If we don’t help them, who will marry all those women and girls? (More Barack Obama stories.)

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