Last week, results from a global survey signalled a rise in worrying attitudes towards women among young men. A team from the pollsters Ipsos and King’s College London found that nearly a third (31%) of gen Z men believe that a woman should always obey her husband, a fifth (21%) believe that she should never initiate sex, and 33% believe that women should let their husbands have the final word on important decisions.
There’s a limit to how much can be drawn from a worldwide survey that draws averages from vastly different cultures and economies. We cannot ask respondents what they meant by their answers, nor how they reconcile apparently contradictory views: younger men are more likely than older generations to call themselves feminists and to find successful women attractive, yet some also say women should be subordinate. Nor does the data tell us whether the same men hold these views.
Other surveys show a more complex picture, where young men’s desires don’t necessarily align with traditional gender roles. One survey of young Americans found more men than women expressing a desire to be parents; another found adolescents of both sexes looking for more vulnerable depictions of fathers on screen.
Young men talk about feeling that they live in a world of increased competition, while searching for the right role models. In a society that treats social position as a measure of personal worth, it is hardly surprising that many men compete for status. Yet inequality means that the rich are zooming away. In 2023, Oxfam found that the richest 1% of Britons hold more wealth than 70% of Britons.
In the UK, young people have been bit hard: the average home in England now costs 7.7 times the average wage, compared with 3.5 in 1997. Unemployment is rising and young people bear the brunt of joblessness. University degrees no longer pave a path to good wages or decent lives. When prospects shrink, status feels scarce and progress looks zero-sum. Under those pressures, some men turn their resentment towards women, fuelling an anti-feminist discourse.
Social media also plays a destructive role, offering the scapegoat of women’s rights rather than real solutions. The “manosphere” offers little beyond bigotry dressed up as self-respect and get-rich-quick fantasies that prey on male anxiety. You don’t have to look far to see the effect. When asked by Ipsos/King’s College, “When it comes to giving women equal rights with men, things have gone far enough in my country”, in the UK almost half of men agreed – just below the 29-country average. The poll also shows that Britain, along with other western countries, has seen the biggest rises since 2019 in support of the belief that on gender equality, things have “gone far enough”.
Researchers argue these attitudes will not shift until the reality does: more jobs, higher wages and better living standards for young people. Yet prosperity alone does not erase misogyny.
A cultural shift is also needed – one that can’t happen without young men first taking accountability for their attitudes towards women. They also need compassion – to be told that they do not need to wear the faulty armour of machismo; and that wealth does not define them. Above all, it is rising inequality that blocks their path to a good life – not women.
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