Rewriting the Rulebook

In 2025, many young men feel caught between the cultural expectation to be strong and the struggles they’re experiencing day-to-day. This tension is driving many toward structured frameworks including politics, religion and even hyper-masculine (manosphere) content. It’s an evolution from the shifts we addressed in our 2019 report Enlightened Masculinity and 2023's Refining Modern Masculinity.

The New Work & Education Contract

While men with higher-education qualifications are more likely to out-earn all other demographics, those without degrees are struggling to find purposeful, well-paid work. It’s a split that’s compounding as fewer men around the world enrol in university. An uptick in career mentorship programmes and trainee schemes for non-university graduates seeks to remedy this gap – and help men find satisfying work, degree or not.

Cultivating Emotionally Aware Relationships

While loneliness, romantic struggles and family stress don’t uniquely affect men, there’s a lack of solutions oriented to helping them build meaningful connections – especially given that 65% of US men aged 18-23 say nobody knows them well (Equimundo, 2023). There’s an opportunity for brands to provide spaces for men to practice vulnerability, upskill their emotional know-how and bond with likeminded peers.

Overcoming Hidden Health Barriers

Although more medical research is done on men, in many countries they’re more likely to die prematurely of preventable causes such as heart disease and accidents. In Australia, 63% of men say that gender stereotypes – like toughing out pain – have impacted their behaviour in healthcare settings (Movember, 2024). Astute brands are encouraging men to be proactive about their health with supportive spaces and streamlined services that position wellbeing as a strength, not a weakness.