Should gay people be allowed to adopt?

Martina Milburn, chief executive of The Prince’s Trust, which helps disadvantaged young people into work, said: ‘It is nothing less than a tragedy that so many young people feel they don’t have a role model.
‘We should not underestimate the impact a positive adult influence can have on a young person.
‘At The Prince’s Trust, we give vulnerable young people the support they may have lacked earlier in life, helping to build self-belief and, in turn, develop skills for work.’

Does a Male Role Model Actually Have to be a Man?

The increasing fallibility and uncertain availability of XY-chromosome role models combines with the blurring of gender roles to raise a question: Does a male role model actually have to be a man?

Gender roles have always been subject to society's expectations, and society's expectations have disassembled the testosterone fueled male archetype. Tony Porter caused an Internet stir with a call for male engagement and self-examination in a TED presentation called: "Don't Act Like a Man." Whether all this is gratuitous male bashing or a reasoned call for recalibrating the historic markers of masculinity depends on whether you think 21st century men are being ruined or updated.

Either way, the once-direct line between what men are and what boys copy is subject to diversion by forces we may not understand for a generation.

In my research, I found women worked very hard to bring men into their sons' lives. But most were happy to take on the role themselves—even the basics.

Watching the strong women in their lives, they can learn how to respond to challenges without aggression. They can learn the power of reliability and the importance of respect. They can learn determination, decision-making and independence.

Boys can learn how to treat women by watching men. But they can just as easily learn it from watching how women demand to be treated.

The term role model was first used in a study of the socialization of medical students—a reference to our tendency to compare ourselves to those in social groups we would like to join. Another definition says that role models affect us in ways that make us want to be better people.

In joining the society of strong and caring men—and in learning how to be better men—having a male worthy of respect and emulation is a wonderful and powerful thing in a boy's life.

But heroes are fallible, fathers leave, and stand-ins won't always be there. For single and two-mother families, none of that means the lessons of manhood can't be passed on.

Male role models are constructed of stronger stuff than chromosomes.

Young men with no male role models in their lives and women without a mother figure struggle to keep their lives on track, a hard-hitting report warns today.