One of the most egregious bits of political dishonesty in the 1980s and early 1990s was the widely-accepted notion that girls were "short changed" in America's classrooms. This was based on "research" done by people who refused to show their data, but was widely accepted anyway. But it wasn't just false--it was the exact opposite of reality.
For decades, girls have done better in school than boys. For the last couple of decades, that phenomenon has been accelerating. For some time now, more girls have been going on to college than boys. It has reached the point where young men now make up only 43% of college graduates--and that trend is continuing to worsen.
Both The Washington Post and Time have pretty good articles on this steadily worsening problem. Although some schools have been flirting with so-called "Affirmative" Action policies to make it easier for underqualified men to get into college, the phenomenon is not widespread. On the other hand, some schools and fraternities are doing things to try to woo qualified men, without resorting to discriminating against non-males. Good for them.
(By the way, Time strangely describes Christina Hoff Sommers, a self-described lifelong Liberal Democrat, as a "conservative education analyst." It appears that, today, anyone who opposes racial or sexual discrimination is automatically labeled a "conservative." Or maybe a "neocon." Oh well.)
The most important place to start, though, is in grade school and high school, where boys have long lagged behind girls--and where, frankly, they are often discriminated against by a hostile education establishment. CBS News acknowledges the crisis, which has been going on unnoticed for a very long time.
As the father of a boy now entering grade school, I'm not particularly worried, since I know what I'll teach my son. But I remember what it was like in school as a boy, especially in the 1980s. I saw and experienced the way teachers treated boys, and it needs changing. I'm glad to see that, finally, other people are noticing.
Interesting Dean. I didn't know that about the rates of attending college.
I also note that nobody is jumping on them about not sharing their data, but are all over John Lott for supposedly losing his data on something only tangentially related. Ahhh, you gotta love inconsistency.
(Disclaimer: If John Lott cannot produce any evidence of his initial survey then he deserves the loss of reputation that will entail.)
You might expand your thinking in this area.
If the crisis in women's education was an outright fraud, take a look at the domestic violence charade. It's even worse.
There is no crisis in domestic violence. It's all a lie. The domestic violence crusade is the left's equivalent of the war on drugs -- an infinitely expandable moral crusade with the real purpose of creating an infinitely expanding bureaucracy and generating fees.
I remember when I was a kid in the 1950s that we were taught that the proof that the Soviet Union was evil was that neighbors were taught to inform on neighbors and children were taught to inform on parents.
And there you have the purpose of the domestic violence crusade. Feminists who loath family and marriage have successfully used a fraudulent crisis to invade our families and marriages.
I have two close relatives who had physically abusive spouses.
You'll need to show me a lot before you get me to believe this is merely a feminist conspiracy. Yes, we know they lied about certain things--Superbowl Sunday is NOT a record day for emergency room visits for women, most women are NOT physically abused or rape victims--but how far are you trying to take this?