What Does Our Modern Economy Offer Men?

We’ve grown up in a culture that celebrates every female milestone in the workplace while quietly ignoring what’s happening to our men. For the third time in history, there are more women in the workforce than men. The first time was during the recession. The second was around Covid. What’s different this time is that there’s no disaster. No pandemic. No economic collapse. Just the steady reality that female-dominated sectors are expanding, while the jobs men have traditionally filled are shrinking. Do enough of us care?

I’m a woman who cares, and I’ve been sounding the alarm for a decade. I remember about seven years ago, when a wave of young men started dropping out of college and getting real estate licenses. I knew a couple of them, including my boyfriend’s son. They were bright but done with the four-year degree treadmill that felt increasingly pointless. “This is the future,” they’d say, eyes lit up at the promise of flexible hours and commissions. As a long-time advocate for the well-being of young men, I wondered then what would happen when all those licenses flooded the market. They couldn’t all become real estate agents. It was a drop-out trend that would have real-life consequences, but it seemed like no one picked up on it or cared except me. I often think about those guys now. Did they ever sell houses? Or did the market shift under their feet the way so many male-dominated fields have, except that no one is raising alarms? People just don’t seem to have the same level of concern for how men are doing economically.

I usually need to begin this conversation by defending myself: I’m not pitting men against women! I’m noticing a pattern that affects all of us. Women make up the vast majority of healthcare workers, and those sectors keep growing. Healthcare is pretty much the only sector that is growing! And education, administration, and literacy-focused roles (the ‘HEAL’ jobs coined by Richard Reeves) stay stable, while manufacturing, construction, and trades contract. The modern economy is rewarding the strengths women naturally bring to the table. It leaves us asking: what does it offer the men who don’t fit neatly into those spaces?

I agree that we need more men in HEAL jobs. Not because men should become more like women, but because men bring something essential to those fields like strength, stability, mentorship, and different perspectives on problem-solving and care. Boys need male role models, teachers, and therapists.  A male nurse or teacher isn’t “feminized.” He’s filling a vital role with masculine energy that kids and patients often respond to differently. Yet instead of encouraging young men toward these growing sectors, we’ve spent years just telling boys their natural traits are problems to be fixed, while we focused on getting girls ahead professionally.

When men lose economic footing, families feel the strain.

Pair this economic reality with the other problems boys and young men are facing: a crisis of identity, mental health struggles, and suicide rates that dwarf women’s, and a culture that devalues masculinity at every turn. Boys are told their instincts are wrong, their ambitions are sexist, their presence in certain spaces are even unwelcome. Is it any wonder so many are checking out, not just from the job market, but society?

I’ve written before for Evie Magazine about how society mocks masculinity until we need a hero, like firefighters running into burning buildings, fathers providing protection, and men who show up when things get hard. I also wrote about how we must stop demonizing male ambition. But men’s roles themselves are devalued or a punchline in our culture. The same culture that cheers women who “lean in” has spent decades leaning away from men. We tell boys to be softer, more emotional, more like girls, and then wonder why they feel lost or resentful. As I always say, we can’t shame and blame the boy out of boys for the modern-day economy and not expect consequences. There must be a better way.

This isn’t just a “men’s issue.” Women feel it, too. When men lose economic footing, families feel the strain. Marriages weaken under the lack of provision and protection. Children grow up watching their fathers question their worth. Complementarity, the beautiful dance between masculine strength and feminine nurture, gets thrown off balance. We don’t need men to become women. We need an economy and culture that makes room for men to be men!

The solution isn’t more blaming, shaming, and guilting or lectures about “privilege,” and we definitely shouldn’t say, “well, maybe it’s women’s turn to be on top.” Instead, we need to prepare boys for the modern economy without forcing them to reject who they are. We could have more vocational training that values trades, alongside HEAL paths. Mentorship programs that celebrate male role models in healthcare and education and beyond. Policies that support young men for providing through physical or technical labor that are safer from being automated away. More resources and scholarships for young men. We should stop demonizing male ambition and framing every area where men are excelling as “sexist” and a problem we need to fix. And we need a cultural shift that stops treating masculinity as the problem and starts treating it as the asset it has always been, even in the female-dominated sectors.

We need an economy and culture that makes room for men to be men.

Because here’s the truth many gender-equal economists and thinkers don’t say enough: men and women thrive when we honor what makes us different, not when we pretend those differences don’t exist! The modern economy has plenty to offer women—that’s wonderful. But if it leaves men behind, it leaves all of us poorer. Our sons deserve better. Our daughters deserve strong, purposeful brothers, husbands, and fathers. And our society desperately needs men who know their worth isn’t defined by fitting into a new feminine mold, but by stepping into the roles only they can fill in our modern economy.

We need more leaders, lawmakers, economists, billionaires, innovators and job creators to step up, and to focus on and invest more in the future of our boys. It’s not too late to change our direction. But first, we must stop pretending the crisis isn’t there. The data is staring us in the face. Now it’s time to act—with clarity, compassion, and without apology for wanting men to succeed.

Lisa Britton is a writer for Evie Magazine and a contributor to publications, including the LA Times. A passionate advocate for boys, men, and fathers, she was born in Nova Scotia as the youngest of five children. Her work in Washington D.C. has earned attention from members of Congress, presidential candidates, a First Lady, and a President of the United States.

*Photo credit: Shutterstock