As someone who wants both my son and my daughter to flourish across all areas of life, I am frequently reminded that our society does a mediocre job of highlighting and addressing areas in which males face disadvantage. Thankfully we have women's offices, ministries and NGOs working tirelessly to improve the areas in which women still fare poorly. This is not the case for men. Our society often assumes that 'men have it good' and only women carry the burden of gender-based disadvantage. The evidence strongly contradicts this. Here are 13 areas in which men and boys need our help. 3. Men are raised to be disposable . We socialise boys to take more risks and place a lesser value on their health and safety so that men will take on the dangerous but essential jobs: firefighting, logging, heavy trucking, construction, mining and the military. Australia's most dangerous and unhealthy work is carried out overwhelmingly by males, especially poorer men. Twice as many males as females experience work-related injuries and illnesses, and over 90 percent of work-related deaths are male. Australia also remains a signatory to the international convention exempting "able bodied males" between 18 and 45 from the ban on forced labour. 4. Males are the predominant victims of violence . The overwhelming burden of disease from violence worldwide is born by males. Men make up three-quarters of suicides, two-thirds of homicides and three-quarters of war-related deaths. In Australia, young men are three times as likely as young women