Take for example the guys who would rather tough it out than admit there’s something wrong with their health. According to an American Academy of Family Physicians study conducted in 2007, nearly one in three men puts off medical attention as long as possible unless he’s extremely sick or in pain. Worse, nearly one in five men over the age of 55 refuses to get screened annually for colon cancer, even though early diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death.

We’re guessing that the latter group lives an easier life—feeling the constant need to reassert your manhood is enough to cost a guy his sanity, after all. But it also has implications in the grander scheme of things. As a researcher rightly pointed out in her results, men have a lot of power in society, but our decisions can easily be manipulated through the simple act of challenging our masculinity. Not good for anyone.

When a guy finds himself employed by a female supervisor, things get even worse. According to a study by Bocconi University in Milan, some men who feel threatened reporting to a female boss respond by being overly assertive and hard to work with. In the study, male and female students were given the opportunity to negotiate a salary with male and female managers, then measured for how threatened they felt during the process. Unsurprisingly, men interviewing with females felt more imperiled and haggled for higher pay than they did with male interviewers.

Thankfully, there’s at least one place where the oversized male ego seems to be disappearing: at home with the family. A 2013 Pews survey about parenthood found that now, for the first time, just as many fathers are willing to play stay-at-home parent as mothers. Furthermore, fathers rated providing moral guidance and emotional support to their children as more important than conforming to classic fatherly roles as disciplinarian and breadwinner.

Perhaps it will take another generation, but it looks like there’s hope for us guys yet. With the rejection of hyper-masculine behaviours, men can reclaim all the things that overblown machismo promised—and failed—to realize for us: good health, a strong self-identity, profitable work environment and a happy family.

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