Gavin Newsom tackles masculinity crisis via executive order
Gov. Gavin Newsom is the latest Democratic leader to address the question of how to solve rising rates of loneliness, substance use disorder, and economic stagnation among American men.
On Wednesday, he issued an executive order directing his administration to engage more men and boys by identifying civic volunteer opportunities, expanding mental health support, and recruiting more male teachers and school counselors.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle have trained their attention recently on how to improve educational, romantic and employment opportunities for men and boys, a phenomenon referred to as the “masculinity crisis.” The epidemic has been cited as a deciding factor in President Donald Trump’s reelection and as one of the reasons the Democratic Party’s popularity has plummeted to historic lows.
“Too many young men and boys are suffering in silence — disconnected from community, opportunity and even their own families,” Newsom said in a statement, citing rising rates since 1990 of men with few close friends, joblessness between the ages of 25 and 54, and declining college enrollment and graduation rates.
He released the executive order and a related podcast episode hours before former Vice President Kamala Harris announced she would not run to succeed him as governor in 2026.
Trend shows in politics
Some 55% of men cast their ballots for Trump in 2024, with more Black and Latino men supporting him than they had in 2020 and 2016, though overall, people of color supported Harris. Some of Trump’s inroads among young men have been attributed to his appearances on podcasts with predominantly male audiences, a host of streamers and influencers that comprise part of the “manosphere,” a loose network of online communities that promote fitness and sports, (heterosexual) dating strategies, financial investing, and which sometimes — but not exclusively — have a misogynistic bent.
As Democrats have struggled to find a winning strategy to reclaim Congress in 2026, they have targeted young men via ventures like “Speaking to American Men” and the Young Men Research Project. Newsom has made a few forays of his own, speaking to Trump youth whisperer Charlie Kirk, professing admiration for Joe Rogan, and talking up his bona fides as a self-made businessman and bowhunter on “Diary of a CEO” and the “Shawn Ryan Show.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who is frequently talked about as a 2028 presidential contender in the same breath as Newsom, recently ordered his cabinet secretaries to craft policy with men and boys in mind, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also mentioned their plight in a February speech.
Newsom’s executive order does not come with new funding but restructures ongoing initiatives to prioritize men’s wellbeing, like using Prop. 1 funding to expand mental health services, and increasing the number of apprenticeships and vocational training offered via a state educational master plan.
Male quality of life appears to be suffering
Kevin Roy, a University of Maryland family science professor who studies masculinity, said men dying “deaths of despair” via opioid overdoses and suicides have been on the rise in recent years, while almost every other population group’s quality of life has improved. Another factor is the growing gender gap between men and women in higher education, as four-year degrees are a major factor in how much one earns over the course of their career.
“These are men who are in disinvested communities. They’re stuck. They don’t have the educational or the employment opportunities they’ve previously had, they didn’t go to college. They’re getting divorced. They’re not getting married as much,” he said of young men. “And politically, what’s happened is that’s the group that has gotten extremely angry and extremely vocal and has driven the right-hand side of the equation.”
Newsom has been one of the most vocal liberal proponents of filling that void in recent months. Alongside his executive order, he released an episode of “This Is Gavin Newsom” featuring Richard Reeves, a Brookings Institute scholar who published a book in 2022 positing that efforts to improve gender equality and a shift from manufacturing towards the knowledge economy have inadvertently left men and boys behind.
Reeves, who is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, argued that politicians have focused on addressing gender inequality while failing to address growing wage depreciation, which explains much of men’s stagnation and why the right has captured their support.
“We haven’t done enough. There haven’t been enough policies, there haven’t been enough public announcements about what we see the problems of boys and men from frankly, people like you, Governor, and from others,” Reeves said, while calling Newsom’s order a “fantastic move.”
Emphasis on work skills rather than mental health
Roy said Newsom’s order was “wide ranging,” but that much of its success would hinge upon expanding apprenticeship programs rather than mental health providers, of which there is a glaring need, including male therapists who are more likely to appeal to men in need of such care.
“Expanding money towards more apprenticeships is a great way to go,” Roy said. “Men can’t easily get access to general assistance, for example. That’s been gone for 20 years or more, in a lot of ways…. I think what’s helpful in California is (that) there seems to be already in place a model to promote apprenticeships in the building trades.”
Part of the solution is a cultural shift, Roy said, especially as young men are more apt to admit when they’re struggling mentally or emotionally compared to older generations. Part of Newsom’s executive order calls for reducing stigma around needing help.
“They’re much more able to say, ‘Hey, I’m feeling down or I’m feeling vulnerable or I’m depressed,’ and they’re much more able to ask for help, I think,” Roy said. “And so it may hit differently than other initiatives might have hit in the past. So that’s a good thing.”
This story was originally published July 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Gavin Newsom tackles masculinity crisis via executive order."
