MEN ARE THE OPPRESSED GENDER
This is a non-exhaustive compilation of research citations highlighting the oppression and discrimination faced by men and boys in various social contexts. Bringing together academic studies, government reports and organisational data:
1. People are less concerned about male suffering.
Reynolds, Tania, et al. "Man Up and Take It: Gender Bias in Moral Typecasting." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 161, 2020, pp. 120-141, ISSN 0749-5978.
2. Most people are more willing to sacrifice a man’s life than a woman’s, they are also inclined to save the lives of women over those of men.
Gröschel Jr, Amilcar & Awad, Edmond & Schulz, Jonathan. (2018). 2018 Article The Moral Machine. Nature.
3. Male and female adolescents feel more empathy for female peers than they do for male ones.
Stuijfzand S, De Wied M, Kempes M, Van de Graaff J, Branje S, Meeus W. Gender Differences in Empathic Sadness towards Persons of the Same- versus Other-sex during Adolescence. Sex Roles. 2016;75(9):434-446. doi: 10.1007/s11199-016-0649-3. Epub 2016 Jun 27. PMID: 27909382; PMCID: PMC5112287.
4. In-group bias isn't present in men, however it's present in women.
Rudman, Laurie & Goodwin, Stephanie. (2004). Gender Differences in Automatic In-Group Bias: Why Do Women Like Women More Than Men Like Men?. Journal of personality and social psychology. 87. 494-509. 10.1037/0022-3514.87.4.494.
5. Lesbians are more accepted than gay men around the world.
Bettinsoli, Maria Laura & Suppes, Alexandra & Napier, Jaime. (2019). Predictors of Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbian Women in 23 Countries. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 11. 194855061988778. 10.1177/1948550619887785.
6. Most homeless people are men.
Moses, Joy and Jackie Janosko. "Demographic Data Project Part II: Gender and Individual Homelessness." National Alliance to End Homelessness, endhomelessness.org/ddp.
7. Men are 97% of combat fatalities.
Fischer, Hannah. "A Guide to U.S. Military Casualty Statistics: Operation Inherent Resolve, Operation New Dawn, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom." Congressional Research Service, 20 Nov. 2014, RS22452.
8. The majority of war-related civilian deaths are men.
Ormhaug, Christin Marsh; Patrick Meier & Helga Hernes (2009) Armed Conflict Deaths Disaggregated by Gender. PRIO Paper. Oslo: PRIO.
9. Boys and men are almost exclusively targeted by genocidal regimes, throughout history and present day.
Global Justice Center. "Beyond Killing: Gender, Genocide, & Obligations Under International Law." December 2018.
10. Men make up 93% of work fatalities.
Employment and fatalities, by gender of worker, 2006.
11. 81% of adult homicide victims are men, and 67% of child homicide victims are boys.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Global Study on Homicide, 2023.
12. Contrary to the belief that it’s more dangerous for a woman to go out in public, it’s actually men who experience more violent crime by strangers at nearly twice the rate of women.
Harrell, Erika, Ph.D. "Violent Victimization Committed by Strangers, 1993-2010." Bureau of Justice Statistics, December. 2012.
13. Men fear being victims of crime just as much as women.
Sutton, Robbie. (2005). Gender, Socially Desirable Responding and the Fear of Crime: Are Women Really More Anxious about Crime?. British Journal of Criminology. 10.1093/bjc/azh084.
Derksen, Syras Wade. "Gender, Social Desirability, and Fear of Crime: Are Women Really More Afraid?" The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba, 2012. Print.
14. Boys in poor urban areas suffer more than girls from violence, sexual abuse, and neglect.
Blum, Robert Wm, et al. "Measuring Adverse Child Experiences Among Young Adolescents Globally: Relationships With Depressive Symptoms and Violence Perpetration." Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 65, no. 1, 2019, pp. 86-93.
15. While women are twice as likely as men to be victims of human trafficking (42 percent to 23 percent), both boys and girls are equally likely to be targeted for human trafficking.
Curtis, Ric, et al. "The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in New York City. September 2008. John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 2008.
UNODC, Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2022 (United Nations publication, Sales no.: E.23.IV.1).
16. Boys are more likely to be undernourished than girls.
Thurstans S, Opondo C, Seal A, et al. Boys are more likely to be undernourished than girls: a systematic review and meta-analysis of sex differences in undernutrition. BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e004030. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2020-004030
17. Boys are much more likely to be beaten at school and are beaten worse than girls.
VIII. The Use of Corporal Punishment against Specific Groups
18. Boys were much more likely to be physically abused than girls.
Thompson MP, Kingree JB, Desai S. Gender differences in long-term health consequences of physical abuse of children: data from a nationally representative survey. Am J Public Health. 2004 Apr;94(4):599-604. doi: 10.2105/ajph.94.4.599. PMID: 15054012; PMCID: PMC1448305.
19. There are 24 million more boys than girls doing child labor.
International Labour Office. Global Estimates of Child Labour: Results and Trends, 2012-2016. Geneva, 2017.
20. Boys are more likely to be murdered by one of their parents, and it’s mostly mothers that do the murdering.
Child Maltreatment 2022. Children’s Bureau (CB), 29 Jan. 2024.
21. Both mothers and fathers tend to treat daughters more favorably across all Western countries.
Jensen, A. C., & Jorgensen-Wells, M. A. (2025). Parents favor daughters: A meta-analysis of gender and other predictors of parental differential treatment. Psychological Bulletin, 151(1), 33–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000458
22. Teenage boys actually experience more abuse from their romantic partners of the opposite sex than girls do.
Shaffer, C. S., Adjei, J., Viljoen, J. L., Douglas, K. S., & Saewyc, E. M. (2021). Ten-Year Trends in Physical Dating Violence Victimization Among Adolescent Boys and Girls in British Columbia, Canada. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(9-10), 3947-3964. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260518788367.
23. Male victims of domestic violence who report the crime were more likely to be arrested than the female abuser.
Douglas EM, Hines DA. The Helpseeking Experiences of Men Who Sustain Intimate Partner Violence: An Overlooked Population and Implications for Practice. J Fam Violence. 2011 Aug;26(6):473-485. doi: 10.1007/s10896-011-9382-4. PMID: 21935262; PMCID: PMC3175099.
24. Female criminals reported to police are less likely than male criminals to be arrested.
Lisa Stolzenberg, Stewart J. D'Alessio, Sex differences in the likelihood of arrest, Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 32, Issue 5, 2004, Pg 443-454, ISSN 0047-2352, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2004.06.006.
25. Men get 63% longer sentences than women for the same crime.
Starr, Sonja B., Estimating Gender Disparities in Federal Criminal Cases (August 29, 2012). University of Michigan Law and Economics Research Paper, No. 12-018, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2144002.
26. 11% of men are falsely accused of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, or other forms of abuse.
Stewart, Rebecca. "Survey: Over 20 Million Have Been Falsely Accused of Abuse." Center For Prosecutor Integrity, 17 Dec. 2020.
27. 40% of college women polled said they would happily make a malicious accusation.
Bertsch, S., Matthews, K. Lies and imagined intent to lie: Personality, sexism beliefs and false claims of assault. Curr Psychol 42, 9810–9818 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02278-2
28. Being falsey accused of a crime can be as traumatic to someone’s psyche as rape.
Brooks SK, Greenberg N. Psychological impact of being wrongfully accused of criminal offences: A systematic literature review. Med Sci Law. 2021 Jan;61(1):44-54. doi: 10.1177/0025802420949069. Epub 2020 Aug 17. PMID: 32807017; PMCID: PMC7838333.
29. Reported crimes with female victims have higher clearance rates than crimes with male victims.
Aki Roberts, The influences of incident and contextual characteristics on crime clearance of nonlethal violence: A multilevel event history analysis, Journal of Criminal Justice, Vol. 36, Issue 1, 2008, Pg 61-71, ISSN 0047-2352, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2007.12.007.
Avdija AS, Gallagher C, Woods DD. Homicide Clearance Rates in the United States, 1976-2017: Examining Homicide Clearance Rates Relative to the Situational Circumstances in Which They Occur. Violence Vict. 2022 Feb 1;37(1):101-115. doi: 10.1891/VV-D-20-00134. PMID: 35165162.
30. Both men and women actually see women as morally superior to men.
Eagly, A. H., Nater, C., Miller, D. I., Kaufmann, M., & Sczesny, S. (2019, July 18). Gender Stereotypes Have Changed: A Cross-Temporal Meta-Analysis of U.S. Public Opinion Polls From 1946 to 2018. American Psychologist. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000494.
31. Men are more likely to be altruistic to women than to men.
Saad, G., Gill, T. Sex Differences in the Ultimatum Game: An Evolutionary Psychology Perspective. Journal of Bioeconomics 3, 171–193 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020583425623
32. People are more supportive of women in male-dominated professions than vice versa.
Block, Katharina, et al. "Do People Care If Men Don't Care About Caring? The Asymmetry in Support for Changing Gender Roles." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 83, 2019, pp. 112-131, ISSN 0022-1031, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.03.013.
33. Mothers are more likely to stigmatize negative emotions from boys than fathers.
Thomassin, K., & Seddon, J. A. (2019). Implicit attitudes about gender and emotion are associated with mothers’ but not fathers’ emotion socialization. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement, 51(4), 254–260. https://doi.org/10.1037/cbs0000142
34. Men receive more negative criticism than women for the same quality of performance.
Jampol L, Zayas V. Gendered White Lies: Women Are Given Inflated Performance Feedback Compared With Men. Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2021 Jan;47(1):57-69. doi: 10.1177/0146167220916622. Epub 2020 May 18. PMID: 32418503.
35. Teachers gave girls higher grades for the same quality of work boys do on school-related papers, and boys overall have a disadvantage in the school system.
Hartley BL, Sutton RM. A stereotype threat account of boys' academic underachievement. Child Dev. 2013 Sep-Oct;84(5):1716-33. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12079. Epub 2013 Feb 12. PMID: 23402479.
Ilaria Lievore & Moris Triventi (2023) Do teacher and classroom characteristics affect the way in which girls and boys are graded?, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 44:1, 97-122, DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2022.2122942
K-12 Education: Discipline Disparities for Black Students, Boys, and Students with Disabilities. GAO-18-258, Mar 22, 2018, released Apr 04, 2018, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-18-258.
Terrier, Camille. "Boys Lag Behind: How Teachers' Gender Biases Affect Student Achievement." November 2016, The School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative, MIT Department of Economics.
36. Both men and women have an equal likelihood of experiencing rape, domestic abuse, harassment, and possibly stalking from members of the opposite sex.
Stemple, Lara & Meyer, Ilan. (2014). The Sexual Victimization of Men in America: New Data Challenge Old Assumptions. American journal of public health. 104. e19-26. 10.2105/AJPH.2014.301946.
Straus, Murray. (2010). Thirty Years of Denying the Evidence on Gender Symmetry in Partner Violence: Implications for Prevention and Treatment. Partner Abuse. 1. 332-362. 10.1891/1946-6560.1.3.332.
Acquadro Maran D, Varetto A, Corona I, Tirassa M. Characteristics of the stalking campaign: Consequences and coping strategies for men and women that report their victimization to police. PLoS One. 2020 Feb 28;15(2):e0229830. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0229830. PMID: 32109263; PMCID: PMC7048288.
37. Male victims of sexual coercion are not taken as seriously as female victims.
Anneloes Huitema & IneVanwesenbeeck (2016) Attitudes of Dutch citizens towards male victims of sexual coercion by a female perpetrator, Journal of Sexual Aggression, 22:3, 308-322, DOI: 10.1080/13552600.2016.1159343
38. Common reasons women give for abusing their male partners include feeling angry, or having their feelings hurt, but NEVER because of self-defense.
Hettrich, Emma & O'Leary, K. Daniel. (2007). Females' Reasons for Their Physical Aggression in Dating Relationships. Journal of interpersonal violence. 22. 1131-43. 10.1177/0886260507303729.
39. Male suicide is 4 times higher than females, even when they choose the same methods as females. And (according to NCISH) it’s not because men don’t seel help, a study of 1,500 men who committed suicide found that 91% had been in contact with a health agency to seek help.
Garnett, Matthew F. and Sally C. Curtin. "Suicide Mortality in the United States, 2001–2021." NCHS Data Brief, no. 464, April 2023.
Anna Cibis, Roland Mergl, Anke Bramesfeld, David Althaus, Günter Niklewski, Armin Schmidtke, Ulrich Hegerl, Preference of lethal methods is not the only cause for higher suicide rates in males, Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 136, Issues 1–2, 2012, Pages 9-16, ISSN 0165-0327, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2011.08.032.
The National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH). Suicide by middle-aged men. 2021. The University of Manchester. https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=55305
40. Girls benefit more from teen suicide prevention programs than boys.
Hamilton E, Klimes-Dougan B. Gender differences in suicide prevention responses: implications for adolescents based on an illustrative review of the literature. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015 Feb 23;12(3):2359-72. doi: 10.3390/ijerph120302359. PMID: 25711358; PMCID: PMC4377906.
41. Men are as likely as women to develop depression.
Martin LA, Neighbors HW, Griffith DM. The experience of symptoms of depression in men vs women: analysis of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. JAMA Psychiatry. 2013 Oct;70(10):1100-6. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2013.1985. PMID: 23986338.
I’ve been considering developing a college course on men and masculinity (I’m a psych prof) and have been slowly accumulating a similar list with some overlap with yours. But yours is better. Thanks for sharing. I’m still not sure if I’ll develop the course. My department head is supportive, but I’m getting pushback from a lot of my colleagues and college leadership.
You absolutely should do it. And every time there is an objection, just point to the data, and invite them to come audit your course. Same thing with criticism from the outside because you know there will be...likely a lot. Invite them in. Keep all presentations/lectures based on fact, and objectivity, and present the studies. Require class commentary (and any papers/assignments) to be kept objective, fact based, resource based, and apply critical thinking without logical fallacies (e.g. no whataboutisms).
> Being falsely accused of a crime can be as traumatic to someone’s psyche as rape
Happened to me.
Horrifically traumatic and caused me PTSD and literal confusion for years following.
The biggest thing I love about this list is how fresh so many of the studies and articles are. When so many pieces of misandrist rhetoric use shit from the 70s-90s, like the Duluth model of DV, meanwhile nothing in this list is older than 2000, meaning the data is newer, and therfore more accurate to current conditions.
My favorite is when they reference the income gap study that was done in 1990.
I knew about most of these, but no. 27 kind of made my mouth drop.
27 is legit insane lmao
Brothers please, please be careful.
I also just noticed that the study is by two women, which counters any potential criticism of this study being biased.
ETA: Here's the full study. It's a wild read. Over 50% of participants were rated for machiavellianism and almost 45% for narcissism.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354490187_Lies_and_imagined_intent_to_lie_Personality_sexism_beliefs_and_false_claims_of_assault
The cited study says 39.6% of a sample of 255 women rated positively that they could imagine a situation in which they might make a false claim. It never said anything about happily
I fail to see your point.
Wow, thank you for the information. I want to read all of the cited materials. Great resource!
33. is something I have personally seen.
I want to point out that the diagnostic criteria for depression (e.g. crying, sadness, withdrawal, low energy) maps more readily onto female socialization norms. Men, by contrast, are taught to suppress vulnerability, so their distress is often externalized (e.g. anger, risk-taking, substance abuse) which can make depression harder to identify.
Crying, sadness, withdrawal, & low energy are not the diagnostic criteria. They actually are at least one of the first 2 + 4 others for at least 2w:
- depressed mood
- anhedonia: markedly diminished interest & pleasure in most/all activities
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- weight gain/loss
- insomnia/hypersomnia
- psychomotor retardation
- fatigue/loss of energy
- feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt
- diminished ability to think/concentrate
- recurrent thoughts of death or SI
So maybe withdrawal of low energy sure, but definitely not crying at all and not only sadness
I wasn’t claiming that crying, sadness, withdrawal, and low energy are the formal criteria, but I accept the correction as what I was describing are closer to common clinical markers of depression.
Studies that looked into differences in externalising and internalising behaviours of Children which experienced Adverse Childhood Experiences dont find a consistent and significant Differences betweem Boys and Girls. What they do find tho is that Boys experiences significantly more ACEs and especially Violence.
should have also mentioned that women are more likely to bully others, especially online
36 is genuinely hard to believe ngl. The sources say that the perception of gender asymmetry is largely due to underreporting by men, rigid legal definitions, and a focus on physical injury over the act of perpetration.
Thank you for posting to r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates. All new posts are held for manual review and may take up to 48 hours to be approved. Please don’t message the moderators, we’ll make sure to review your submission as soon as possible. If this is your first post, be sure to review our rules to ensure it meets our criteria.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
If you actually look into many of these sources they’re either very misleading or just wrong. You can be aware of men’s specific struggles without acting like they are THE oppressed gender and women are all evil ect this place is turning into such an incel sub
Can you give an example?
Yeah, this post honestly made me wince