It’s not just the young men
What's going viral
A single chart broke my corner of the internet this weekend.
It shows that according to Gallup data, for the past 25 years, young women’s political ideology has shifted dramatically to the left, while young men’s political ideology has stayed consistently moderate.
Let’s be clear. This is not new information. The Gallup data is actually 2 years old. Gallup itself did a deep dive on “young women’s leftward expansion” at the time. I’ve written about it A LOT.
Read my latest piece on what happens when ‘The Girl Power Generation Reaches Adolescence.’
But there’s a reason that this chart’s hitting a nerve online right now.
*It’s worth noting, the chart doesn’t exactly line up with Gallup’s data. At the peak of young women’s liberalness in 2020, there was a +28 point gap between liberal and conservative shares of young women. In 2023, there was a +19 point gap*
Everyone has a take. Here some of the hottest ones:
Full posts can be found here, here, and here.
And here’s mine: The first major peak in young women leaning left is in 2017 (when Trump was inaugurated and we had the women’s march). The second is between Covid and the fall of Roe v. Wade. This generation of young women is growing up with fewer rights than their mothers & grandmothers. That has a profound impact.
So what: Headline after headline after headline has zoomed in on young men since 2024. But that’s only half the story.
Life has changed dramatically for young women in the past 25 years:
Young women are outpacing young men in college completion rates
Women in their 20s and 30s are working more than prior generations of young women
And they’re also having fewer babies in their twenties and more in their late 30s and 40s
The Expectation Gap. And while the expectations on young men have mostly stayed the same (hence, why, for the most part, they still prioritize traditional values like getting married and having kids), the expectations on young women have multiplied. That’s left young women more anxious and, according to NBC data from the fall, more focused on life milestones such as having emotional stability and being spiritually grounded than young men their age.
The blame game isn’t working. It’s definitely worth exploring where and how young men and women differ and what got us to this point. But it only adds fuel to an already raging fire when we place blame on one or the other for how they drifted so far apart.
Instead of complaining about the gender wars, what if:
Manosphere podcasters, like a Joe Rogan, brought ‘femosphere’ content creators, like an Alix Earle, on as guests to bridge that gap
Algorithms stopped feeding content by gender
The GOP embraced paid family leave and child tax credit policies that get at the root of economic anxiety around having kids, rather than just rhetoric around women having babies
Democrats stopped pandering to young men with kitschy attention grabbing initiatives (like collabs with athletes) and instead focused on actually addressing the issues all young people are facing, like how hard it is to get a job or afford a college degree that might not pay off
Noteworthy reads
Young Men Are Going to Extremes to Feel Like They Measure Up, Sumathi Reddy for The Wall Street Journal
I’m a teacher. ‘Edutainment’ won’t solve the deeper problem., Diane B. Norton, Letter to the Editor, The Washington Post
Meet the Young Superfans Camping Outside the Met Gala, Laura Pitcher for Dazed
These Are the Hiring Spots Where College Grads Are Landing Good Jobs, Ray A. Smith for The Wall Street Journal
A couple other things I saw while scrolling…
Kalshi is hiring a politics intern:
And Dems are *finally* leaning into YouTube
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Trump is the answer. Also, Roe vrs. Wade. Also the sex scandals in the church. But if you want the real 100% deal, it is that social media seduced men into actually saying things online that I guess they only thought privately/said among each other--and it ain't pretty. Women shouldn't have the vote. Women are too "emotional" for leadership. Men are closer to good because they were made first. The whole women are made to be conquered crap that Hegseth's pastor said? It wasn't kept to some wacky church in a rural hollow but everyone can see it. Like so many men don't seem to get that if they say these things, women will be repulsed. And that repulsion will have political consequences.