An eerie feeling came over me in the lead up to the 2024 United States election. While in 2020 I was flooded with critical pleas to prevent a second Trump term, in 2024 the matter seemed far more trivialised. My For You Page was met with freshmen in frat basements doing the “Trump dance” to YMCA, and compilations of “iconic Trump moments.” Charlie Kirk “owning the libs” on college campuses would be recommended to me daily despite my incessant requests for them to stop.
Historically, younger generations have always skewed more left wing than the generation before them. Yet a surprising turn has shown that Gen Z is twice as likely to identify as more conservative than their parents than millennials were at that age, according to a poll by Gallup and Walton Family Foundation. And those responsible for the rightward shift are almost entirely men.
The polar views of Gen Z aren’t entirely uncommon amongst generations whilst in adulthood, often tapering into moderation by the time that century’s 30s or 40s are reached. However, what is significant is how great the variation between Gen Z men and Gen Z women is. In the past 25 years, the partisan gap between men and women ages 18-29 has doubled, to currently be 23 points apart.
There are various theories suggested for this, though given it’s a fairly recent observed phenomenon, little broad research has been conducted thus far.
One critical issue is that young men are fundamentally more apathetic towards the political sphere than young women. And it’s not even just the political sphere, as young men globally are evidently struggling with a confused sense of purpose in the world. This has led many to turn towards the promises offered by far right parties and politics, from Make America Great Again to Andrew Tate.
In the most recent US presidential election, whilst Harris secured the overall Gen Z vote by 54%, 67% of Gen Z white men voted for Trump, a large number of whom were without college degrees.
One theory proposed is the idea that the rise in a belief in hegemonic masculinity is contributing to right wing support. Hegemonic masculinity is, according to Scientific American, the idea “that men must be powerful, bread-winning protectors in their families and broader society.” Belief in that statement was in fact the strongest predictor of support for Trump in both 2016 and 2020, and is ideologically aligned with much of what the Republican party and the principles of Project 2025 want to push.
This pressure to defend one’s “manhood” is seen as being under threat across the globe today, whether it stems from the erasure of the middle class, pushing more and more young men out of work, or from the ever-increasing presence of women in higher education and careers, vulnerable young men are feeling threatened by a rapidly changing system that they are unsure of a place in. And right wing politics have unfortunately offered the disenfranchised explanations and solutions.
Reform of the United Kingdom, and the anti-immigration sentiment in Ireland, have a significant young male presence. In the 2024 UK election, men 18-24 were twice as likely to vote for Reform UK as women of the same age. For 16-17 year olds, the cohort that will be newly able to cast votes in the next election, men were three times more likely than women to vote Reform, and the overall share increased to over a third of that demographic’s electorate.
One potential explanation proposed is that online, at least, left wing parties do very little to court the support of young men, whilst many right wing influencers and figures are specifically reaching out to them. There’s a much discussed idea that too many of the political focus points of the left are “irrelevant” to young men, not addressing the day-to-day struggles they face, where right wing talking points do discuss them, but additionally encourage them to place blame upon other groups.
Though misdirected and heavily flawed, many young men do feel that they are getting a worse deal than in the past, and many cannot critically connect to the struggles for gender equality that have historically been felt by women. Many are coming to realisations that women their age do not need them the way they may have decades prior, and are in fact outpacing them in terms of education, job recruitment, and attaining positions of power.
Instead of reflecting upon what it took for gender equality to reach this place, it can be easier to simply shrug and claim “DEI.” They blame the system, but a completely wrong element of it. Many cling to podcasters and right wing male influencers, from Andrew Tate, to Charlie Kirk, to Jordan Peterson, who suggest that instead of adapting to a revised pecking order, a return to the old one is necessary.
Charlie Kirk, in his much followed (so much so that it was parodied on South Park) tour across US and UK colleges spent much time focusing on a return to traditional values, and his belief that the “single woman issue [was] one of the biggest issues facing a civilisation.”
His subsequent encouragement for young women to not attend college, or enter the work force, and instead marry and have children as young as possible, is what many dejected men want to happen. Their dream is to find a young and vulnerable woman who will view them as a protector, rear their children and never question a word that comes out of their mouth, a return to traditional values MAGA promises.
This is the endgame playbook for the global rightward shift. Adolescent brains are still developing, and several parties globally have found that this cohort will accept any reasoning and solution that is offered to them for why they feel so marginalised in a world where they have always been the alpha.
Instead of constantly critiquing and bringing down this group it is important to meet them where they are. Many of the issues that have angered and radicalised them stem from economic inequalities, or from the devaluation of certain career paths. Men can (and should) be feminists, and shouldn’t feel ashamed for taking up space in the world. The left needs to be active about reaching out to young men before they fall down right wing rabbit holes, and about getting them to understand they are part of a much wider societal problem, not one that can be fixed by treating women like property.
