Britain's economic failures are fuelling the masculinity crisis

Telegraph

14-04-2025

There has been some desperate straw clutching over the last week as confidence in the US plummets and American voters prepare to be poorer.
Setting aside Donald Trump's recent backtracking, there has been a lot of chest-thumping pro-tariff talk about hyper-masculinity. Brush away those thoughts about economic hardship boys, because these tariffs are set to be the ultimate testosterone boost.
Given that a recent poll by Marquette Law School showed that non-college white men were most likely to back the tariffs, it's an obvious pitch.
Fox News pundits have already been plugging the idea, arguing that tariffs will bring back a 'manly' workforce because 'when you sit behind a screen all day, it makes you a woman'.
Apparently, the trade war will cure America of its 'crisis of masculinity' by bringing alpha-male jobs back, even if the economy has completely imploded by then.
Britain needs to pay careful attention to America's growing obsession with traditional 'manliness' because the same problems are happening here. We should be asking why the tariffs have struck such a chord with so many non-college white men, because in Britain, men are giving up on work faster than anywhere else in the richest parts of the world.
The proportion of men aged 16 to 64 participating in Britain's labour force has plunged from a record high of 84pc in 2009 to 80.9pc in 2024 – a much bigger drop than in the US. Men are working shorter hours too, with only those over 65 putting in more hours since Covid.
The outlook is particularly worrying among young men, as a growing number are not entering the working world at all. The number of 16-24-year-old men not in education, employment or training (Neets) is up 40pc since Covid, compared to just 7pc among women.
The feeling of hopelessness starts from a worryingly young age, too – one in five 15-year-old boys in this country say they have low life satisfaction, according to The Children's Society's 2022 report.
There are plenty of reasons why this is happening, but one often overlooked corner of the argument is how the definition of masculinity and any problems that follow correlate with economic policy. Studies have shown a clear link between economic and personal strife.
A group of economists from MIT, the University of California and the University of Zurich warned in 2017 that 'trade shocks differentially reduce employment and earnings, raise the prevalence of idleness, and elevate premature mortality among young males', adding that shocks to male relative earnings 'reduce marriage and fertility'.
This, they said, increases the number of children living in below-poverty, single-headed households.
Despite huge cultural changes in family dynamics in recent decades, with more women working and more fathers involved at home, 70pc of men as young as 18 still believe that they should be the primary breadwinner in a relationship, according to a study of 3,000 UK adults conducted by Starling Bank last year.
Studies have found that men in so-called 'medium-status' jobs are more miserable than women who are in the same position. In short, they are less willing to consider themselves professional 'average Joes' than women.
At the same time, more people feel detached from their employer and overall job satisfaction levels are falling. With self-esteem so closely tied to employment status, those who feel career success isn't on the cards for them might be more likely to give up before they even get started and instead search for meaning elsewhere.
The social contract that many men thought they were buying into – work hard, buy a house, have a family – seems out of reach for many.
Work doesn't seem to be working and further gloom in the UK jobs market won't help matters. Britain is now suffering the worst downturn in the jobs market since lockdown, fuelled by a lack of job openings and an increase in redundancies.
I have heard from men who have been desperately applying for jobs for months with no response, while others have given up and moved abroad.
Men still earn more than women and continue to rule the roost in powerful leadership positions, but in reality, that high-profile club makes up a small percentage of the male population. Low wages and rising benefits have left millions of others adrift. How does Britain help them?
The centre of attention here has understandably been on the social side, looking at smartphones, families, role models and the education system. All of that is important. But Donald Trump's focus on the economic impact has clearly struck a chord with lost men in the US.
Economic opportunities have changed enormously as male-dominated sectors shrink. Yet his tariffs won't be the answer.
Although it's true that the decline of sectors such as manufacturing has impacted male identity as the number of well-paid jobs for non-graduates has shrunk, a potential post-tariff recession combined with hard labour and inevitably low pay will not fix broken men.