Many have discussed the rapid decline in trust and esteem for institutions of higher education. Most settle on the fact that it is a problem of their own making. This is true: exorbitant prices, activism, suppression of speech, and discrimination in admissions. These are all problems created from within. So is the guiding ideology that views masculinity as toxic.

As Helen Andrews has pointed out, the damaging effects of wokeness coincide with the increased presence of women in institutional leadership. Universities were once factories of progress—not to be mistaken with progressive—led by innovative risk-takers. Today, they operate more as re-education camps designed to stamp out any hint of masculinity, labeling it as toxic. The feminization of higher education is an ideological takeover that has declared war on the characteristics of the “alpha male,” letting intellectual curiosity and excellence melt in the acid bath of cancel culture.  

Look at the numbers, because they don’t lie even if the administrators do.

Women now dominate college enrollment, graduate programs, and entire fields like psychology, education, and the humanities. Recent reports show that female representation in college leadership has also increased steadily. Meanwhile, the share of men on campus has dropped precipitously. Men now account for roughly 41 to 44 percent of U.S. undergraduates, down from an even split in the 1970s. Fewer men are enrolling in college, and those who do enroll are more likely to drop out. This shift is generally celebrated, and any area where women make up less than 50 percent is often treated as a problem to be solved. Why aren’t there more female university presidents?, activists bemoan. Instead, we should be asking what to do about the missing men.

Men are leaving for other spaces because they are constantly under attack in higher education. Every semester, I have male students in my office venting about how professors allow classmates to openly stereotype and malign them. They feel uncomfortable, but most don’t speak up against this discrimination because doing so risks igniting the fire of a Title IX investigation. Challenging a female professor or classmate risks hurting someone’s feelings and becoming the target of a complaint. Make a woman feel uncomfortable, and the inquisition ensues. Do the same to a man? The feelings-first, anti-male brigade shrugs: he probably deserved it.

Ironically, the men who do endure this environment, endure it precisely because of the qualities modern feminists vilify: the ability to tolerate disagreement. Men are more tolerant of political enemies than women are of allies. Consider what that tells us about the inclusivity of female-run spaces.

These male qualities under attack aren’t bugs or toxic traits honed by the “manosphere,” they’re important features of masculinity that drive innovation and success. Risk-taking, single-minded obsession, physical courage, and a willingness to endure ridicule, failure, and bodily harm are what built the modern world.

Progress didn’t come from “safe space” endeavors. It was forged in high-testosterone environments where failure was expected, competition was brutal, and glory went to the bold. The same drive that makes men overrepresented in prisons and on battlefields also makes them overrepresented in patents, startups, and Nobel Prizes.

Yet instead of celebrating this record of success, universities have spent the last several decades on a grotesque treasure hunt for “forgotten women” in history. Entire curricula have been rewritten to shoehorn obscure figures into the pantheon or to claim that successful men were really women. Meanwhile, the men who actually moved the needle get airbrushed out or reduced to villains. We’re told to pretend that a handful of overlooked female inventors or scientists were the secret engine of progress.

While women in history may not have gotten their due, rewriting history by ignoring the astounding innovation of great men helps no one. The reality is that the history of high-stakes discovery and innovation is overwhelmingly male. Correcting past discrimination by providing opportunities for girls is great, but self-selection means that boys are likely to be tomorrow’s innovators, as they were in the past.

There is no safe space for masculinity in modern education. In fact, some have even argued that this is part of what is fueling men’s participation in religious organizations, where, at least for the time being, men can still feel proud of their heritage. In academia, however, a generation of potential alphas churned through the indoctrination machine is turned into colorful-sock-wearing betas who don’t dare hold a door open lest they be labeled a chauvinist.

The feminization experiment has failed. Instead of comfort, it’s produced a toxic culture of cancelation and stagnation, and driven men away. Enough. It’s time to stop pathologizing the drive and discomfort that built the modern world and start rewarding it so we can bring back and support the young men who will be instrumental in building our future.

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