Aim primarily at equality and you will not get it. Understand the importance of complementarity and you will get something like equality thrown in. The crisis in boys education has its origin in the family and social order and to some extent is feminist ideology, it is not primarily in the education system although, of course, the education system reflects what already exists in society at large. In every society the family, not the school, is the centre-piece of social stability and change. It is the Archimedean lever from which the social structure can be manipulated for good or bad.
Family life is a natural fusion of religion, myth, law and culture.
It is still the basic mechanism which directs economic life and productivity. The major cause of boys diminishing educational achievement is fatherlessness. In New Zealand by 2010 if present trends continue, half of European and nearly three quarters of Maori infants under 12 months will be in fatherless families. After divorce more than half of fathers have no significant contact with their children. Of course girls suffer from poor fathering as well as boys but for boys the educational and disciplinary consequences are more severe.