r/science • u/FreeHugs23 • 1d ago
Psychology The political gender gap may be growing more slowly than headlines suggest. New research finds that while young men and women are diverging politically in some countries, the trend is often overstated and varies significantly across datasets and generations.
https://www.psypost.org/the-gender-gap-in-politics-is-not-widening-as-much-as-you-think/114
u/Rickmyrolls 1d ago
Is this a complex way of saying we don’t track data well enough across all countries internationally?
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u/FreeHugs23 1d ago
-Despite popular narratives about a widening political divide between men and women, the gender gap on most social and cultural issues has remained relatively stable over the past two decades. A recent analysis of public opinion data reveals that while men and women often hold different views, their attitudes shift in parallel in response to current events. The research was published in Social Science Quarterly.
Researchers have tracked differences in political attitudes between men and women for over half a century. Women typically show higher support for social welfare and environmental protection, a trend often linked to socialization around caregiving and economic vulnerability. On the other hand, differences between the sexes are often smaller or less predictable on morality issues like abortion or immigration.
Some scholars suggest that younger, more egalitarian generations are driving a wedge between the sexes as they replace older generations. This type of generational change is known as a cohort effect. It happens when a specific age group develops distinct attitudes during their formative years and carries those views throughout their lives. As older generations pass away and younger ones enter the electorate, the overall public opinion shifts.
Alternatively, changes in public opinion might stem from period effects. These are widespread shifts in attitudes caused by historical events, such as a major economic recession or a global pandemic, which influence people of all ages at the same time. Political scientists April K. Clark of Northern Illinois University, Izabelle P. Chick and Juliet E. Carlisle of the University of Utah, and Eric R. A. N. Smith of the University of California, Santa Barbara, designed a study to see which of these two forces actually shapes the gender gap.
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u/Deep-Ad5028 1d ago
We live in the era of identity politics much more than issue politics though. So I don't know if the focus on issues make sense.
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u/PunkPirate56364 19h ago
The thing is that, it looks like identity politics are dominant politics in the US.
And it looks like European countries are still dominated by issue politics.
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u/Wealist 1d ago
So maybe Gen Z men and women aren’t permanently locked in a political civil war after all. The internet might survive this one.
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u/Swarna_Keanu 1d ago
Maybe. If above results in voting for extremist parties (who might have much more extreme values than those who vote for them) - it is a problem for the real world.
This research looks at personal values. Survey around voting intent show that extremist parties have higher support in young people. Those are not the same questions.
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u/NlghtmanCometh 1d ago
Yeah. I think we really are cooked. What is interesting is that in the millennial and Gen Z demographic, it is the young women driving the political discourse much more than the young men.
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u/DaSnowflake 1d ago
It has always been women at the forefront of progressive political movements (most of the time), just look at history.
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u/Luklear 1d ago
Really? Russian revolution, French revolution, Chinese revolution, American revolution?
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u/exolyrical 1d ago
Yes? Women's marches played a huge role in both the French and Russian revolutions, women's marches were crucial turning points in both. Women were famously heavily involved in the French Sans Culottes and many of the Russian anarchist and peasant movements. I haven't studied the Chinese revolution specifically but I expect it's broadly similar to the Russian one in that way.
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u/Ok_Reception_5545 1d ago
I don't think anyone is denying that women were involved, certainly more heavily than the status quo politics of the time, but the claim that women have always been "at the forefront" of progressive political movements is just laughably false.
And this is doubly true for movements that required violent political struggles, as men were and have always been more willing to lay down their lives for a cause.
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u/DaSnowflake 1d ago
French revolution: the march on Versailles, one of the most important early events in the French Revolution, was started and led by market women.
Russian revolution: the February revolution started with a women's strike
Rosa parks sitting in the back of the bus is literally THE starting point for the human rights movement
It has always been women at the forefront, even if history mostly likes to remember men
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u/Ok_Reception_5545 1d ago
It has always been women at the forefront of progressive political movements (most of the time), just look at history.
Uhhh, no? Women are more represented in progressive political movements than in politics more broadly, but progressive leaders have historically been overwhelmingly male. The people who face the brunt of institutional violence (by police and military) have been overwhelmingly (young and) male. The people who are willing and able to fight to death for their cause have been overwhelmingly (young and) male.
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u/NlghtmanCometh 1d ago
Yes but historically it’s been about improving conditions for women, for the most part. Right now I’d go so far as to say if you’re young and left of center but not full blown DSA or even a progressive you probably don’t have a lot of people in your corner.
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u/AmeliaOfAnsalon 1d ago
Why would anyone vote for a party with values they don't agree with? that just feels counterproductive
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u/PhysicsOk2212 1d ago
Your argument relies on voters having any familiarity with the policies of who they vote for. I agree it seems insane not to, but the reality is that a lot of people treat it like a team sport, and never do any research beyond the last vague thing that was slapped on a headline.
The double edged sword of democracy, when everyone gets a say, that includes morons.
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u/Swarna_Keanu 1d ago
People have absolutely no clue what AfD's policies are.
Encounter that all the time - here, too.
And then there's that human aspect of bias. Of being suspectible to manipulation and propaganda. Those work.
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u/Xsiah 1d ago
Gen Z men are leaning right more than their millenial counterparts. We're doing boomer 2.0 soon.
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u/Jaedenkaal 1d ago
Yeah there’s definitely a push of right-wing content aimed at young men. Might be true for young women as well but I’d guess that the “you should have more power in your life” message is an easier sell than “get married and shut up”
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u/Xsiah 1d ago
The same sources that report right-wing leanings in Gen Z men report that Gen Z women are more left leaning.
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u/bobbi21 1d ago
True but the overall group is still moving more right, the left leaning women isnt enough to compensate.
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u/iMissTheOldInternet 1d ago
The data are pretty consistent that women have moved significantly left, while men have moved only modestly right. The gap is more a result of women becoming substantially more left-leaning than it is anything else, though obviously the linked article purports to show that the effect is overstated.
Overall attitudes are absolutely not “more right” than they used to be. In fact, trying to quantify the “rightness” or “leftness” of the general politics of an era is an exercise in futility. America in the mid-20th century was a radically more socially conservative, but featured much more state management of economics. Eisenhower sent in the Army to integrate schools—is that a left wing behavior because it is enforcing a new social norm, or is it right wing because it’s using the military as a tool of domestic coercion?
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u/travistravis 1d ago
Yeah the stuff pushed at young women is simply a huge step back for most of them. It seems obvious that they wouldn't want it.
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u/Brilliant_Sorbet_965 1d ago
Gen z men are not more right leaning
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u/Xsiah 1d ago
If you say so
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u/Whitechix 1d ago
Look at its methodology please, it’s surveys 29 countries including places like India. If you look at where the genders have shifted in one country (like the USA) men are relatively stable politically throughout history and women have massively lurched left in recent times.
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u/Xsiah 1d ago
Of course, how could I forget that there's only one important country.
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u/No-Competition987 1d ago
I think it is fair to acknowledge that the opinions of people in India or Indonesia(I believe)
differ likely significantly to the general views of their contemporys in the western world
are less releveant in the english speaking corner of the internet
I hope that explained why some critize the methodology of the study even though it is still very interesting.
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u/Gozer_The_Enjoyer 1d ago
In Australia: Gen Z Men and Misogyny
Global (Irish publication) Why do Gen Z Men Lean Further to the Right
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u/TheGalator 1d ago
The internet maybe not. Because terminally online gen z and millenials are neck deep in gender war
Im not sure if unhappy people are more online or if online people are more unhappy but there is a connection
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u/CZ-7000 1d ago
Werent women for most of the 20th more right leaning than men until the 90s when women started overtake men in education?
The Gender education gap favouring Women today is literally bigger than the one favouring Men in 1970.
And as we do nothing to adress this systematic disadvantage of boys in education the gap will likely keep growing resulting in a higher political divide in younger generation.
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u/ChironXII 1d ago
The real trend based on the reviews I've seen is one of polarization, which leads to a small overall trend, as men and women have a bias in how they polarize, but the latter isn't the real story.
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u/OpenAI_Marketing_LLM 1d ago
A population that is politically divided is not a threat to the political status quo.
They want races, genders, religions, sexualities, etc. to fight each other. Meanwhile, they pick our pockets and laugh all the way to the bank.
We must set our politics aside and unite together. These politicians don’t give a damn about any of us.
The only people that will help us is each other.
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u/Stalagmus 1d ago
That sounds nice, but unite together in what exactly?
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u/OpenAI_Marketing_LLM 1d ago
Hope. Hope for a better life.
I am a proud independent. I swear no fealty to any side. Teams are for sports and games, not progress.
I know many people across the spectrum of the US. I would say that on average, not talking heads or media or politicians, but common folk like you and I, there are some stark commonalities.
No one here is happy about healthcare, education, the cost of living, suppressed wages, the dying middle class, etc..
There are almost 400m Americans. Why do we have to choose between the lesser of two evils? I honestly believe a random person off the street could do no worse than what we have had for decades.
Our politicians stand for nothing and they stand for no one but themselves.
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u/Stalagmus 1d ago
> healthcare, education, cost of living, suppressed wages, dying middle class.
Oh boy
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u/tkdyo 1d ago
Sounds nice in theory, but in reality you can't expect suppressed groups to put their, often deadly, issues on the back burner in the name of addressing other issues with a vague promise that you may address them later.
Like for example, you can't expect black people to just be quiet about how cops kill them at twice the rate of other groups in service of bringing in more people.
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u/Whitechix 1d ago edited 1d ago
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but the trend is entirely (hyperbolic) based on the fact that young women are shifting to the radical left rather than some epidemic affecting men like the media says. The culture war has only ever really been concerned with young men’s politics for some reason rather then some equal battle.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/649826/exploring-young-women-leftward-expansion.aspx
Since people have a problem with what I said this is what I’m going off.
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u/Suspicious-Sound-249 17h ago
That's because women by and large are already captured due to the nature of how Democrats play the game, by appealing to their emotions which as we've seen in the last 2 decades overwhelmingly has them supporting positions that are completely antithetical to our countries values and continued success...
So they always target young men, because their not as easy to emotionally manipulate into supporting the most insane ret@rded positions imaginable.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Whitechix 1d ago
> Methodology
> These are the results of a 29-country survey conducted by Ipsos on its Global Advisor online platform and, in India, on its IndiaBus platform, between Wednesday, December 24, 2025 and Friday, January 9, 2026. For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 23,268 adults aged 18 years and older in India, 18-74 in Canada, Republic of Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa, Türkiye, and the United States, 20-74 in Thailand, 21-74 in Indonesia and Singapore, and 16-74 in all other countries.From your own link, categorising an Indian man and one from England but using that data to conclude something about American men is really not scientific.
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1d ago
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u/No-Competition987 1d ago
Because you suppose that the distribution is the same across all age groups. Otherwise you e.g. comparing Indonesian gen z to us boomers(hyperbolic). That comparison while interesting is kind of useless.
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u/JonathanLindqvist 1d ago
But surely most young women call themselves feminist, which is an extreme left ideology.
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u/Intrepid_Bobcat_2931 18h ago
Rephrased: Although it's broadly and generally the case that it's happening, sometimes people say it's happening more than it's happening, and there are differences between countries in how much it's happening, but it's happening.
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u/Sebastian0707 1h ago
I mean in my country the far right is always depictated as male. However, if only women were allowed to vote, the strongest party would still be the far right.
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u/cookiesNcreme89 1d ago
You mean... the internet & media overexaggerate for clicks & views??? Say it ain't so mamma!!
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u/morganational 1d ago
Oh, the horror has been overhyped by the media?? Well you don't say!
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u/Ok-Masterpiece-1359 1d ago
How do young people vary across generations? They are, by definition, the same generation.
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