While Biden's $2.6 Billion Policy Targets Gender Equity Abroad, Americans are Dying at Home

In a statement on International Women’s Day on Tuesday, President Biden noted “every person deserves the chance to live up to their full God-given potential, without regard of gender or other factors.”  There is little doubt Americans wish those words were true, but many Americans see them as rhetorical devices meant to undermine the equal protections of millions of Americans and promote a particular ideological narrative that benefits some at the expense of many.

I don’t think I’ve been as hard on policy actions as I am at this very moment. But the genuine disregard of male life and well-being is alarming, and something every mother, grandmother, father, grandfather and American should see as a watershed moment. After all, President Biden’s use of the words “every person” hardly speak to all Americans

While the Biden administration said it will request $2.6 billion from congress to fund global gender equity programs, the administration did so as a way to promote a world view of America’s role in gender equity across the globe while failing to meet its own responsibilities at home.  As Biden pushes for programs abroad, policy makers in the U.S. have yet to forward legislation that creates:

• A National Institute of Men’s Health to match the National Institute of Women’s Health.

• A Gender Policy Council on boys and men to match the Gender Policy Council exclusively for women and girls.

• An overhaul of the Pell-Grant System that disproportionately impacts our nation’s sons by an astounding $6.2 billion annually when it comes to free college money.

• A complete disregard at addressing the college deficit of our nation’s sons and the many other inequities and violations of equal protections.

• A Men in Apprenticeship & Nontraditional Occupations program to match the Women in Apprenticeship & Nontraditional Occupations program (WANTO) at the Department of Labor.

This is certainly not meant to be a zero-sum game proposition and instead a mutual understanding and commitment to equality for every citizen, one GIBM supports and one I support personally.

But as drug trafficking in the U.S. is skyrocketing, as America’s sons are dying, and as a nation of boys are falling further behind in education, the Biden administration’s policies continue to ignore these substantive challenges.  

For decades, successive Presidents have failed to address the gender inequities of boys and men in nearly all facets of American life.  While former Presidents have blatantly flaunted the violation of equal protections, the Biden administration has been duplicitous in its use of the word “gender,” suggesting an inclusiveness of males and females.  In actuality, the administration’s policies are exclusive, only promoting the well-being of girls and women at the expense of boys and men, the very definition of zero-sum policies we must overturn.

Earlier last year, Biden announced the White House Gender Policy Council, a council that is only for girls and women; it is not a council about “every person [having] the chance to live up to their full God-given potential.” Most revealing, the Gender Policy Council was created during the COVID pandemic, when 60-70% of all deaths were male and male overdose deaths reached the highest in the nation’s history. Douglas Belkin of the Wall Street Journal wrote an important article on the status of boys and men in higher education in September of 2021: “A Generation of American Men Give Up on College: ‘I Just Feel Lost.’” Belkin’s points are well supported by decades of analysis.

Review of data from the National Center for Educational Statistics reveals that the Male Gender-Gap in college degrees exceeded 10 million from 2000 to 2018, an unprecedented number and one that is only becoming wider. From 2013-14 to 2018, the Male Gender-Gap in college has accelerated and now tops 3.2 million.

Ignoring the challenges of our nation’s boys and men has been happening for decades. Presidents Obama and Clinton had the White House Council on Women and Girls and the Office of Women’s Initiatives and Outreach respectively. States across the country have created councils on women and girls, despite the overwhelming data that shows boys and men make up most of the countries less educated, COVID, suicide, overdose, and homicide deaths, as well as the nation’s uninsured and homeless population.

These problems really do hit home and impact our mothers and grandmothers. While California mothers, like Jacqui Berlinn, struggle to find ways to help their sons suffering from drug addiction, the Biden Administration is willing to spend $2.6 billion on global equity abroad.

When is the last time America had a sustained, meaningful, and lasting conversation about America’s boys and men in the press, in the legislature, and in the classroom? There seems to be no place for such conversations, and Biden’s foreign policy push is another example of the complete neglect and lack of regard policy makers have for America’s boys and men. This global equity policy further exposes that the suffering of the American male has taken a back seat to the global equity movement. America’s sons are no longer second class citizens of the U.S.; they are second class citizens of the world and the hypocrisy of it all lies in the lap of a man in the oval office who should know better.

Please join us every week as we continue to bring the male narrative to the public discourse and provide insightful information to a truly curious audience.