'Boys and young men are in crisis'

When delivering the 2025 Dimbleby Lecture this week, Former England Football manager Sir Gareth Southgate highlighted the dearth of male role models in contemporary society.

“We need leaders to set the right tone. To be the role models we want for our young men. We have to show young men that character is more important than status. That how you treat others is more important than how much money you make.”

Sir Gareth referred to the report Lost Boys, published by the Centre for Social Justice this month. The report relates with painful detail the impact on boys of the shortage of good role models and the proliferation of toxic ones. It is tragic that whenever the word masculinity is used in contemporary society it is qualified by the adjective, toxic!