Dr Sam Rushworth

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) for securing this debate and for his excellent speech. Although we represent different parties, and although I believe he heckled me the last time I spoke in the Chamber, there is a great deal of unity on the issue. Perhaps this is a moment when men and boys and their needs are being recognised. We need to seize that moment. I declare an interest: I co-chair the all-party parliamentary group on men and boys’ issues with the hon. Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies). Men and women are different. They are different by birth and by nature, but also by socialisation. That is not to deny that there are many different ways of being male and being female. Indeed, in my own home, I am a man who is inclined to being emotional. I like musical theatre and baking, and I am married to a wonderful woman who likes mechanics and rugby. We have a happy and rich marriage. I do not think that we should stereotype men and women, but they are different, and we do have different socialisation. Gender inequality is real, and gender inequality hurts everyone differently. It is wrong to ignore the gendered aspects of challenges that limit any human being from fulfilling their potential. It was wrong when society did that for far too long to women and girls, and it is wrong that we continue to ignore some of the gendered issues that affect men and boys. I represent a constituency, Bishop Auckland, where I see boys who have too often felt left behind. There is underachievement at every stage of education, there is a lack of emotional support and there is a system that too often blames boys rather than backing them. I was pleased to lead a debate last year on the educational disadvantage that keenly affects northern and particularly north-eastern working-class boys. I made the point that we only have to go back as far as the 1970s to see girls underachieving in the education curriculum. There was rightly a big public outcry and specific gendered strategies were developed, such as getting more girls into science and technology. That was the right thing to do. Today, however, we see that girls are outperforming boys at every educational stage. The north-east has the lowest GCSE attainment nationally, and only 60% of boys are school-ready before they start early-years education, compared with 75% of girls. Boys go on to score half a grade lower on average at GCSE. They account for 70% of permanent exclusions and 95% of youth custody. In the area that I represent, one in seven young men is not in education, employment or training, which is nearly double the rate for young women. Structural inequality means that working-class boys start behind and stay behind. I am pleased that the Government are making great strides in their strategy on violence against women and girls, which is timely and important. It is also important that boys and men be partners in that strategy, but we must not lose sight of the fact that 2 million men every year are victims of sexual assault, domestic abuse or stalking, representing 37% of the victims of that type of behaviour. I was similarly pleased to see the Health Secretary launching a men’s health strategy on International Men’s Day. That was urgently needed, and it is great that it has been brought forward. I appreciate the comments that have been made in this debate about men’s mental health, which is a particular challenge in my community. Mental health challenges are driven by issues such as loneliness, but a common cause, which I see in my surgeries all the time, is men being denied access to their children. Through no fault of their own and with no accusation of wrongdoing, they are simply not able to enjoy a family life. That means children missing out on fathers, and fathers missing out on the company of children.