CHANGE: Lagging at school, the butt of cruel jokes: are males the new Second Sex? “They work longer hours, face economic insecurity and suffer worse health. Now their feckless ways are lampooned in the media. A controversial new book argues that men increasingly face a prejudice that dare not speak its name. . . . The American men’s rights author Warren Farrell calls it ‘the glass cellar’. There might be a glass ceiling for women, Farrell once told the Observer, but ‘of the 25 professions ranked lowest [in the US], 24 of them are 85-100% male. That’s things like roofer, welder, garbage collector, sewer maintenance – jobs with very little security, little pay and few people want them.’ . . Another area of concern, according to Duncan Fisher, co-founder of the UK’s Fatherhood Institute, is the ‘gratuitous exclusion’ of men from child-rearing: midwifery services are described as ‘one-to-one care’ and whereas employers frequently allow women flexible working hours if they are mothers, the same option is rarely offered to men in similar situations.”

Related: “Hmmm, but women still aren’t picking up the check.”