Save the male: Britain's crisis of masculinity

In fact, in modern Britain, girls are beating the boys at every stage of life — right up until they leave the workplace to have children. The new inequality in Britain seems to start at birth: government data published in November on children under five found girls to be outperforming boys in every one of the official early learning goals, which include listening and attention, understanding, reading, writing, technology and moving and handling.

Girls seem to glide through primary school, while boys trudge. Seven-year-old boys are 7 per cent less likely to reach the expected level in reading than girls. By 11 years old, the gap is eight percentage points. And it keeps yawning wider the older the children get: at 13 it’s 12 per cent; by GCSE, for achievement at grades A* to C in English, the gap is 14 percentage points. While 66 per cent of girls achieve five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent, only 56 per cent of boys manage the same.

On to the sixth form, and the gap’s still there. Young women achieved higher scores on average across all qualifications at key stage five. Last year, the average point score per student achieved by girls by the end of their schooling was 740 compared to 706 for boys. But here boys do beat the girls on one count: they get more top grades at A-level. By the end of school, 13 per cent of young men had achieved three A* or A grades compared to 12.1 per cent of young women. So boys do finally catch up with girls in time for university, right? Wrong. Girls also outnumber boys in university applications.