Richard Reeves

March 22, 2025

Over the past 50 years, we have made tremendous strides, socially and politically, to level the playing field for women and girls, but data indicates that the gender imbalance we fought hard to overcome may now be skewed in a different direction. Through critical investigation, author and researcher Richard Reeves has discovered that many boys and men are losing ground in the classroom, the workplace, and the family. With rigorous analysis and profound empathy, Reeves will explore the economic and social factors contributing to this systemic struggle, unveil the challenges and paradoxes inherent to navigating masculinity in the modern age, and offer a vision for a future where all can flourish.  

Format: Speech with Audience Q&A

Richard Reeves is the president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, an organization with a mission to raise awareness of the problems of boys and men and advocate for effective solutions. In 2022, he published his book “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It,” which The New York Times described as a “landmark” and The Economist and The New Yorker named a book of the year. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., where he previously directed the Future of the Middle Class Initiative and the Center on Children and Families. His research focuses on boys and men, inequality, and social mobility.

Reeves’ previous roles include director of strategy to the United Kingdom’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, from 2010 – 2012; director of the political think tank Demos; principal policy advisor to the U.K.’s minister for welfare reform; social affairs editor at The Observer; and economics correspondent for The Guardian. He is a contributor to The Atlantic, National Affairs, Democracy Journal, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times.

In 2017, Politico named Reeves one of the top 50 thinkers in the United States. His other books include “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It” (2017) as well as “John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand” (2007).

Reeves sits on the board of Jobs for the Future and is an adviser to the American Family Survey and the Equity Center at the University of Virginia. Reeves has a bachelor’s degree from Oxford University and a doctorate from the University of Warwick.