Last week, while the country was reeling from the image of a credible, intelligent woman being forced to share the national attention with a pack of howling old white men, Alia Wong published a story in The Atlantic about gender and reading:

In two of the largest studies ever conducted into the reading habits of children in the United Kingdom, Keith Topping—a professor of educational and social research at Scotland’s University of Dundee—found that boys dedicate less time than girls to processing words, that they’re more prone to skipping passages or entire sections, and that they frequently choose books that are beneath their reading levels.

If we really want boys to have more empathy as they make their way in the world, we should encourage them to read more and to read better. That would be a good place to start.