Boys and men from generation Z are more likely than older baby boomers to believe that feminism has done more harm than good, according to research that shows a “real risk of fractious division among this coming generation”.

On feminism, 16% of gen Z males felt it had done more harm than good. Among over-60s the figure was 13%.

The figures emerged from Ipsos polling for King’s College London’s Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership. The research also found that 37% of men aged 16 to 29 consider “toxic masculinity” an unhelpful phrase, roughly double the number of young women who don’t like it.

“This is a new and unusual generational pattern,” said Prof Bobby Duffy, director of the Policy Institute. “Normally, it tends to be the case that younger generations are consistently more comfortable with emerging social norms, as they grew up with these as a natural part of their lives.”

Link to study: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/masculinity-and-womens-equality-study-finds-emerging-gender-divide-in-young-peoples-attitudes

  • Digitalprimate
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    310 months ago

    Yeah I saw this over on Mastodon, and there were a lot of stats folks questioning the methodology. I’m not qualified to do that, but my sons are Zoomers as are all their male friends, and they are all good feminists. This is in NW Europe, so might be a bit biased.

    • @aidan
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      1110 months ago

      To be honest I don’t think parents is a good source of their children’s beliefs usually.

      • Digitalprimate
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        210 months ago

        Fair enough point in general, sure.

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
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      410 months ago

      We’re talking 16% vs 13%. Still a small minority. Based on what groups of people these are concentrated in, and what group you run in, it’s completely plausible you don’t know any of them well enough to understand this is how they feel.

      • @stoly
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        210 months ago

        Worse, depending on sample size, this might not even be a meaningful difference.

    • @stoly
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      110 months ago

      I very specifically first thought that we should have a look at the methodology to see what is going on here.