A major new YouGov survey questions the extent to which the attitudes of young men towards women are different to their elders
Attitudes of young men in British society have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with fears prompted about the popularity of misogynist figures like Andrew Tate on social media, and more recently by hit Netflix drama Adolescence.
Now a major new YouGov study examines the beliefs of young men through a tour of issues ranging from gender equality, misogyny, and masculinity.
The results paint a complex picture, which does not necessarily support the national narrative that there is misogyny problem that is uniquely confined to young men.
While potentially misogynist views are certainly held by a minority of young men and boys, in many cases they are not held at a rate significantly higher than among their elders.
Indeed, the results also show that young men are often more likely to hold more progressive gender attitudes than their older male peers.
The study does, however, find that conceptions of masculinity do differ between Gen Z men and their elders, with traits often associated with toxic masculinity seen more favourably by young men.
However, it is worth noting that, in all cases, potentially misogynistic views among young men are in the minority.
The study also examines the experiences of misogyny among boys from the perspective of teachers and parents. The results of these surveys show that, while most parents and teachers see misogyny as a significant problem nationally, they are notably less likely to have noticed it closer to home. Both groups see social media as a major culprit on the issue, with most teachers also saying that parents are part of the problem.
Do men or women now have things better in British society, and have gains for women been good for men?
It is widely believed by men of all generations that their gender had things better in British society 25 years ago. However, opinion is more divided when it comes to the present day.
The view that men still have the upper hand in British society is held by 36% of Gen Z men – notably higher than it is among older generations of men (23-27%), although still lower than the number of women who have this opinion (47%).
Approximately one in six Gen Z men (18%) believe women have things better than men in British society, again lower than the number among older generations of men who think so (22-28%), although still more than twice the number among women (7%).
When it comes to the gains that women have made in society in recent decades, 35% of Gen Z men think such changes have been actively good for men, making them the group most likely to hold this view.
Approximately one in seven Gen Z men (15%) say progress for women has been bad for men – lower than the number of Millennial and Gen X men who say the same (20-23%), and similar to the 13% of women who think so.
A similar number of young men (15%) likewise subscribe to the idea that ‘the purpose of feminism has been to put men down’, as do 10% of boys aged 13-17. This makes this view about as prevalent among Gen Z as it is among Boomer men (13%), and less common than among Millennial (21%) and Gen X men (19%).
Instead, most young men are more likely to agree that ‘the purpose of feminism is to bring women up to be equal to men’, at 59%.
One in eight Gen Z men say they like Andrew Tate – but most have a strong dislike for him
Andrew Tate has been the central figure in the debate on misogyny and toxic masculinity. Our survey shows that 13% of young men say they have a positive opinion of the influencer, higher than the 8% of Millennial men who say so, and compared to a mere 1-3% among Gen X and Boomer men.
Nevertheless, Tate is widely disliked by young men, with 71% saying they have a negative view of him, including 59% with a “very unfavourable” opinion.
People should also be careful about drawing a direct line between positivity towards Tate and endorsing his views – a previous YouGov survey in 2023 found that only half of those Britons with a favourable view of Tate also suggested that they agreed with his views on how women should be treated.
How many young men see misogyny as being widespread in society?
Most Gen Z men are not blind to negativity that women can face in British society, with 59% seeing misogyny as being either very or fairly widespread. Only three in ten (30%) believe misogyny is relatively limited in the UK, a figure much closer to the number of women who say the same (25%) than it is to older generations of men, particularly Gen X and Boomers (50-53%).
At the same time, however, Gen Z men are also more likely to see misandry – hatred or discrimination against men – as being widespread in the UK. More than a third say so (38%), as do 39% of Millennial men, but notably higher than the number Boomer men who think the same (24%). Only one in five women see misandry as being widespread in the UK (20%).
One in four Gen Z men (23%) say they feel they have been personally impacted by misandry at some point, slightly lower than number of Millennial men who say so (28%) and higher than among Boomer men (15%). Among all male groups, these figures trail the number of women who say they feel they have personally suffered from misogyny (41%).
How many young men say they don’t like women?
Perhaps one of the most obvious tests for misogyny is to simply ask men whether they dislike women: it is reasonable to expect that the very most avowed incels and strident anti-feminists would be willing to volunteer that this is their view.
The results show that only a small fraction of young men (6%) say they have a negative view of women, a figure not hugely distinct from Millennial men (5%), Gen X men (4%) or Boomer men (3%). However, it is worth noting that half of this total may be more misanthropic than misogynist, in that only 3% of Gen Z men say they dislike women and do not say the same of men.
Attitudes towards young women specifically are more negative, with 11% of young men saying they have a negative view of them. However, this is largely indistinguishable from other generations of men – and indeed the 11% of women who have a dim view of their younger peers.
In fact, the results show that young men are twice as likely to have a negative view of men in general (14%) as they are women (6%), with this figure broadly in line with their Millennial and Gen X peers (11%) and women (12%), but lower than the number of Boomer men who share the sentiment (5%).
Negativity of Gen Z men towards “young men” (21% have a negative view) is likewise stronger than it is towards young women (11%) – again, largely in line with the views among older male age groups (24-25%) and women (21%).
Cross-examining the attitudes of Gen Z men towards the genders does find that 11% give a less positive answer of women than men – a figure higher than among older generations of men.
This is, however, much less than the number of Gen Z men who have a more negative view of men than women (28%). The majority gave the same answer for both genders (58%), however positive or negative that might have been.
Attitudes around dating dynamics
Many incel tropes revolve around sexual and dating dynamics. As such, our study asked respondents a battery of ten attitudinal questions to see how many agree with claims around female sexual and dating preferences, as well as some more old-fashioned gender dating etiquette stances.
The most widespread potentially misogynistic view among Gen Z men is that it is wrong for a woman to have had a large number of sexual partners, which 31% of 18-27 year old men say they believe, as do 28% of 13-17 year old boys. This compares to 14-21% of older generations of men, and 17% among women.
However, the results also show that similar numbers of boys and young men also say it is bad for men to have had a large number of sexual partners, and indeed this is also the case among the wider adult public.
If we combine the results for the two questions, we see that only 5% of young men believe that it is wrong for a woman to have had a large number of sexual partners while not saying the same about men. This again proves to be barely different from attitudes among older men more widely.
A landmark incel idea, one which featured in the Adolescence TV drama, is the ‘80/20 rule’; that the large majority of heterosexual women only want to date the top most attractive 20% of men.
This view is held by 28% of young men, and has been picked up by 18% of boys. However, prevalence is actually highest among Millennial men (33%), with fewer Gen X (22%) or Boomers (14%) believing it to be true.
In a similar vein, one in five young men (22%) believe another incel trope that most heterosexual women only want to date men of high social status. Again, however, this conception is most common among Millennial men (30%), before falling back to 18% among Gen X men and 8% among Boomers. Boys aged 13-17 are also less likely to hold this view (14%).
A further incel claim is that women are biologically hardwired to be more attracted to aggressive, dominant men. One in nine young men (11%) appear to agree with this view, in line with Millennial male opinion (10%) but with Gen X and Boomer men less likely to think so (4-6%), and only 2% of boys aged 13-17 subscribing to this opinion.
One of the more extreme misogynist views is that women can be to blame for being sexually assaulted, typically because of drunkenness, clothing choices, or otherwise “asking for it”.
This is hardly a new idea in society, however, and indeed the results show that the one in eight young men who hold this view (12%) is in line with other generations of men (11-15%) and is indeed only slightly higher than the number of women who also feel this way (8%).
A potentially old fashioned view – though not necessarily misogynist – is that the man should pay for a woman on a date. Indeed, it proves to be the Boomers who are most likely to agree, with 32% of men in this generation saying so, compared to 21-25% of younger men and 20% of boys, and the 13% of women who think it’s the man’s responsibility to pay.
However, the idea that a man covering the cost of a date is owed sex by the woman proves to be a much more fringe view, with 6% of Gen Z men believing so, compared to 4% of Millennial men, 1-2% of Gen X and Boomers and 3% of boys.
Finally, the view that women should dress in a way that their partner finds attractive, rather than however they choose, is held by 14% of young men – higher than the 6-8% rate among older men, and a similar number of boys (6%).
Young men’s attitudes towards masculinity
Perhaps the clearest way in which the views of young men differ to their elders in our study is regarding the concept of masculinity.
The results show that Gen Z men (46%) but also Millennial men (42%) are more likely to consider masculinity to be a good thing than their elders (30-31% of Gen X and Boomers).
When it comes to the importance of masculinity, Gen Z are the most likely to say they think it is “very” important for a man to be masculine, at 20% compared to 16% of Millennials, 13% of Boomers and 10% of Gen X men. However, Boomers prove the most likely to think it is very or fairly important for men to be masculine, at 59% compared to 47-50% of the younger groups.
The difference between generations is particularly stark when it comes to what young men perceive masculinity to look like.
There is a noticeably greater likelihood among younger men to see traits that are often associated with “toxic masculinity” – physical strength, competitiveness (in extremes), being emotionally reserved, dominant, and aggressive – as being masculine, positive traits, and important ones for a man to possess. While not necessarily associated with toxic masculinity, Gen Z men are also notably more likely to see assertiveness in a similar light.
In some cases these tendencies are shared by boys – namely for physical strength, assertiveness, and competitiveness – but they do not hold the same views towards emotional reservation, dominance and aggression.
It is worth stressing that positive views of the most potentially problematic of these traits are still only held by a minority of young men, and young men are just as likely as other generations to see traditionally favourable traits like being hard working, intelligent, kind and reliable as being positive and important to have.
However, there is evidence that young men are more likely to see these traditional traits – generally seen as being gender-neutral – as masculine traits than their elders do. For instance, 20% of young men see being “hard working” as more of a masculine than a feminine or neutral trait, compared to 6-11% of older male age groups.
To what extent do young men hold multiple potentially misogynist views?
While the rise of individual misogynistic beliefs in and of itself would be a cause for concern, if it were the case that there has been a significant increase in broader misogyny among young men, we would expect to see a rise in such beliefs being held as a cluster.
However, when we looked at combined answers over 12 potential misogyny markers from our survey (specified in the chart below), we find that few young men hold a significant number of them. Indeed, 45% of Gen Z men hold *none* of these views, with a further 18% holding one and 10% hold two.
None hold more than ten, and only 7% hold half or more of these views.
By comparison, Millennial men prove to less likely to hold zero potentially misogynist views (39%), while a similar 7% hold six or more.
Older generations are less likely to hold a higher number of potentially misogynist views, at 4% for Gen X and only 1% of Boomers scoring six or higher on the chart.
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