How men’s lives are more at risk than women's
This article is a segment of a larger article
In Forbes, author Chuck Devore argues that men in the US are 10x more likely than women to be killed at work :
Looking at 139 separate occupations and discrete industries, an obvious pattern quickly emerges: the safest workplaces are indoors and the safest occupations frequently require education beyond high school. The most deadly occupations, on the other hand, are outside and often involve operating equipment. This largely drives the huge difference in workplace fatalities between men and women, with 4,761 men dying on the job compared to 386 women in 2017. The fatality rate for men was about 10 times that of women: 5.7 per 100,000 vs. 0.6 per 100,000 for women.
According to Arco Professional Safery Services, this discrepancy is even greater in the UK :
[M]en are 23 times more likely to die In the workplace than women. While the cause of the findings could be attributed to the fact that men statistically occupy more physically intensive occupations (including construction and off-shore engineering) data was drawn from a wide array of occupations in which women also work in high volume. As a result, the statistic suggests that, on average, men are more at risk of suffering a fatal workplace injury across any industry or sector.
In Australia we also see the same pattern. According to the Australian Hen’s Health Forum, 190 workers were killed at work in 2017 and 93% (176 of the 190 fatalities) of those workers were men.
Homelessness is also an issue that hits men much harder than . The Good Man Project reports :
Most studies show that single homeless adults are more likely to be male than female. In 2007, a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that of the population surveyed 35% of the homeless people who are members of households with children are male while 65% of these people are females. However, 67.5% of the single homeless population is male, and it is this single population that makes up 76% of the homeless populations surveyed (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2007).
This trend is an international trend as well, as BEN reports :
A total of 86% rough sleepers are men, according to in a study by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Social Affairs.
There are around 380,000 people who are known as the ‘hidden homeless’. This is people who are facing risk of eviction, sofa-surfing at friends and family, or living in unsatisfactory conditions. The majority of the ‘hidden homeless’ are men.
The most common reasons for homelessness among men are relationship breakdowns, substance misuse, and leaving an institution (prison, care, hospital etc.).
Figures compiled earlier this year found that between 2013 and 2017 the amount of homeless people who’ve died on the streets or in temporary accommodation has doubled and around 90% of those deaths were men.
At the European Parliament, María Teresa Giménez Barbat noted that the number of homeless people is on the rise in every European Member State except Finland andf that 75% of homeless people are men. Adding to this, she cited “Sustainable ways of preventing homelessness“, stating that it is harder for men to get rehoused by the authorities because they are perceived to be less vulnerable.
Yet, suicide is still the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45. And a marked gender split remains. For UK women, the rate is a third of men’s: 4.9 suicides per 100,000. Compared to women, men are three times more likely to die by suicide in Australia, 3.5 times more likely in the US and more than four times more likely in Russia and Argentina. WHO’s data show that nearly 40% of countries have more than 15 suicide deaths per 100,000 men; only 1.5% show a rate that high for women.
In “Understanding Suicide Among Men”, Jenny Kennard gives the following explanations for this gender inequality:
Traditional male gender roles discourage emotional expression. Men are told they need to be tough and that they should not need to ask for help. Such rigid gender norms may make it difficult for men to reach out and ask for support when they need it.
Depression may be underdiagnosed in men. Men often do not disclose feelings of depression to their doctors. When they do, it is often described in terms of having problems at work or in relationships. Men also tend to describe their feelings as “stress” rather than sadness or hopelessness.
Men are less likely to seek help for emotional problems. Research suggests that depression is diagnosed less frequently in men because of the tendency to deny illness, self-monitor symptoms, and self-treat.2
Men may be more likely to self-treat symptoms of depression with alcohol and other substances.