There’s a crisis in masculinity. Workplaces need to start talking about that and taking responsibility for that.
These are the words of historian and social commentator Dr Eliza Filby speaking at the Watercooler, in a captivating session on understanding and supporting multigenerational workforces. (If you missed her, she’s due to speak at our MAD Summit on 9 October, 2025).
Dr Filby is not alone in her view. There’s a groundswell of opinion, as well as research, that it’s actually males who are lagging behind females in many areas of life now, particularly work.
More girls are going into higher education today than boys, with females making up 58% of domestic undergraduate student intake in the UK in 2021-22. By this year too – 2022 – research showed for the first time that the average income for young women exceeded their male counterparts.
‘Powerless men’
It’s already well known that three times more men than women die by suicide, but this gap has also widened in the last few years; the male suicide rate in England and Wales hit 17.4 per 100,000 in 2023, marking a record high since 1995 (ref. ONS).
These turnaround trends have prompted mainstream media such as The Times to write headlines like ‘The divide in tomorrow’s Britain: power women and powerless men’ (8th June). They’ve also led to fiercely feminist thought leaders worrying about the plight of men, and the overall effect on gender equality, with journalist Caitlin Moran even writing a book entitled: ‘What about men?’
Moran believes that modern definitions of masculinity have become too constraining and are causing this downturn in male wellbeing and confidence, and that a male equivalent of a feminist revolution is needed.
Do men need a feminist revolution?
Speaking on the To Be A Boy podcast recently she said:
“Women rebelled against this whole idea of being the perfect woman with the perfect body and earning your money and having the perfect domestic life. But men and boys don’t have that language yet. Men have not had anything equivalent to feminism, so they have no tools in their toolbox to counter these ideas [of modern masculinity].”
The question for you, working in Health and Wellbeing, reading this is: is it an employer’s responsibility to step in here and help give them these tools?
For Matt Grisedale, Senior People Champion, E.ON, a “crisis” of masculinity is “probably a bit dramatic” but he agrees that “what has traditionally been seen as masculine traits are changing and people need to understand that masculinity is different today”.
Lack of role models
In his experience, men have suffered from a lack of role models because there’s far less written and talked about modern masculinity, compared to shared experiences of being a woman:
“I’d love to write a book about this at some point because there’s such a lack. I think it’s important to get people together to share experiences. Even if that’s just a list of what they’ve done, or quotes from different men that stand out and help people think differently because not all men are the same.”
Grisedale has started bringing groups of men together informally at E.ON. One of the biggest learnings he’s had is that the issues that men are grappling with are actually very similar across the generations:
“I thought they would be very different, depending on age group. But they’re not. The problematic feelings are often the same… it’s imposter feelings… or feelings of not being good enough… or pressure to be different, or behave differently.”
Spaces for men needed
Emily Pearson, who is behind the Manbassador programme and is founder of the Wellbeing Lead Academy believes Grisedale is 100% right to focus on creating spaces for men to be themselves. For her, the crisis is the lack of “spaces that support men to live healthier, engaged lives” and to feel understood.
She agrees that “there’s real urgency” to tackle this issue, not least because it’s become commonplace now for society to “blame men and their masculinity for all of their problems, including their health problems”. The fact that the word “toxic” is almost automatically invisibly applied to the word “masculinity” in 2025 could serve as compelling evidence of her point.
However, she also wouldn’t say that “masculinity itself is in crisis”, rather that “many men are facing challenges around identity, connection and wellbeing that aren’t being openly acknowledged in society and most workplaces”.
DEI backlash
Even worse than not being openly acknowledged, some men report that some workplaces have made them feel that talking about their experiences is not welcome, or even appropriate. It could be argued that some men’s sense of alienation has led, at least in part, to the current DEI backlash in some workplaces, triggered by President Trump but embraced by numerous employers after him.
There’s certainly evidence that men have been feeling silenced, or even alienated, at work. For instance, research has found that:
- some men feel unsure of their role, and where they belong in an organisation, as a result of DEI efforts (ref. 2023 report by Catalyst)
- others feel hesitant to access resources, like mental health resources, for fear of appearing weak or ungrateful (ref Deloitte report on workplace wellbeing)
- and many men, especially white men, report feeling uneasy about discussing their challenges at work (ref Women in the Workplace report by McKinsey).
“Workplaces have expected men to be allies of women, and rightly so,” he says. “But who are the allies for men? Some of the DEI pushback, I think, has been that the conversation has not included men as being people that need DEI support,” says Mark Brooks, Senior Communications and Policy Adviser to the government on Men’s Health, Inclusion and Domestic Abuse.
Business case for embracing difference
This is not for one minute to suggest that DEI initiatives are not important and necessary for an entire workforce to thrive; we have written many, many articles here on the business case for embracing difference at work, in all its guises, and why it’s so valuable – now more than ever.
But all employees, whatever background and characteristics, must feel included in the DEI conversation for wellbeing strategies to be effective.
Pearson has heard about this sense of being silenced and criticised, too, from the men she’s worked with:
“A lot of them feel as if they’re being man-bashed and targeted. The fact that people talk openly about ‘white male and stale’ employees in the workplace is absolutely horrendous.”
Have we disengaged men?
In some environments, it’s even become socially acceptable to vilify men and make them feel bad about showing, or priding themselves, on any masculine traits. So they hide them, repress them or find role models that see the good in them (hello, Andrew Tate).
In this context, it’s understandable to see why we’ve got to where we’ve got: because many men don’t feel understood, able to speak up or valued, they are disengaging and disconnecting. And, as Pearson, warns, this is dangerous for their wellbeing because “connection is protective against lots of men’s health issues like suicide, addiction and isolation”.
So what’s the good news, you might ask? I thought you at Make A Difference focused on that? The positive and proactive?
Yes, we absolutely do.
The positives
The positive – as Brooks says – is that male health is now firmly on the agenda alongside female health.
“Over the last 10 years there has been a gradual recognition that there is a need for, not only public policy around men’s health, but also professional practice,” he says.
“So that means services provided directly by the health system, or by those working in and around it, like the Manbassador programme or other employer programmes.”
As other positives, he also cites the fact that there’s been a marked increase in charities campaigning around men’s mental and physical health, and a recognition that men’s health needs to be embedded into other initiatives like employment strategies and boys’ education.
But the major positive, says Brooks, is the forthcoming men’s health strategy, announced in November and currently in the ‘call for evidence’ part of the process. He’s part of the team advising the government.
He says:
“We’ve got a Women’s Health Strategy now and, building on that, there will be a Men’s Health Strategy as well, which is complementary because, after all, men and women do not lead separate lives. We, and our health, are very much interlinked.”
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