Young people’s attitudes to masculinity and women’s equality show signs of an emerging gender divide, with the views of men and women often differing more within younger, rather than older, generations, according to a new study.
The findings, from King’s College London’s Policy Institute and Global Institute for Women’s Leadership in partnership with Ipsos UK, shows the gender split in views is starkest among the young when it comes to how helpful the term “toxic masculinity” is, whether it’s harder to be a man than a woman today, whether feminism has done more good or harm to society, and approval of the influencer Andrew Tate.
The research—which is based on a representative survey of 3,716 people aged 16+ using the Ipsos UK online random probability KnowledgePanel—also shows that in some cases young men today are no more supportive of action on gender equality than older men, despite their generally being more socially liberal, and that young men tend to be more worried about the challenges facing men.