A Polarizing Gender Gap?

In the days after the re-election of Donald Trump, which was driven by a notably male-dominated support base, two things happened in the United States: there was a surge in misogynistic violence against women on social media and there was a spike in the number of women discussing boycotting men online.

In terms of the latter, Google trends results show how the term “4B” skyrocketed overnight. This roughly translates to “Four No’s”, a radical feminist movement that emerged first in South Korea as a form of protest against entrenched gender inequalities, where women choose to abstain from dating, marrying, having sex or children with men. In the U.S., voices on social media argued that those who had backed Trump were voting directly against women's rights and that women should consider following the four no’s if they are not going to be treated as equals.

It appears that a rift is widening along gender lines in the U.S. This is not only in terms of political choices, as shown by the recent election, but also in terms of education, as a higher share of young women are now obtaining a college degree, and sexuality, with more women identifying as LGBTQ+. Meanwhile, a higher share of young men are turning to religion and young men without children are more likely to say they want to be parents one day than childless young women.

Data from an Ipsos survey finds that a divergence of values is not unique to the U.S. and is more pronounced among Gen Z respondents. The polling platform asked more than 24,000 adults across 31 countries about whether they would define themselves as a feminist. Where 52 percent of Gen Z women said they would, just 34 percent of Gen Z men said the same. As the following chart shows, this is the widest gap of the generations at 18 percentage points. While the share of Gen Z male feminists is slightly lower compared to Millennials, both younger generations still hold more progressives views in this regard than Gen X or Baby Boomers.