The gender divide in young people’s voting trends is alive and well in Croatia, where a recent study found that men under the age of 25 are six times more likely than the young women to vote for the far-right.
Closely behind in second place, Portugal’s young men are five times more likely to vote for a far-right party.
The report, published by European Policy Centre last month, noted the widening gap between conservative young men and progressive young women across European countries including Germany, the UK, Poland and Bulgaria. The author of the study, Javier Carbonell, attributes the widening political divide to the diminishing access to employment available for young men.
“The rise in anti-feminism among young men is not just a reaction to feminism, but also the result of growing precariousness – especially among working men who don’t have a university degree,” Carbonell wrote.
“[Job opportunities] “have been increasing among women under 24 for decades, while they have been decreasing for men”.
Due to the decline “in terms of income, wealth, employment, purchasing power, educational attainment and mental health”, young men are being attracted to the “traditional vision of masculinity” championed by far-right parties, which “have successfully capitalised on the frustration associated with the loss of a stable job and financial independence – traditional markers of masculinity”, Carbonell explained.
The study warned that “this gender gap threatens not only gender equality, but also the foundations of democratic support itself, since radicalised young men often show a weaker commitment to democratic norms.”
The study explained that the gender divide is being exacerbated by “the deterioration of economic standards” which has been “driven by structural changes that have left young men less educated, earning less, and struggling to meet the traditional expectations of masculinity, i.e. being the “breadwinner” in their families.”
“The far right has successfully exploited this crisis by offering a compelling, though regressive, vision of manhood, which advocates that the cause of the decline is the progress of feminism instead of the real causes of rising inequality and automation.”
The apparent shift towards a more conservative leaning observed in young men has been documented recently across the world, in Europe, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.
In Germany, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been attracting an increasing number of young men. A Pew research last year found that over a quarter of German men had positive views of the right-wing anti-migrant party compared to 11 per cent of women. One researcher from the Institute for Generational Research attributed men’s voting habits to the fact that many parties on the left often focus on themes that don’t concern them, such as feminism, equality and women’s rights.
“Overall, men don’t see themselves in these themes,” he told the BBC. “That is why they have a tendency to vote further right.”
According to Dr. Intifar Chowdhury, a youth researcher and Lecturer in Government at Flinders University, the gender divergence isn’t just about ideology – it’s about whose struggles are being recognised.
“With women’s concerns gaining political traction, some young men are feeling scrutinised and sidelined, seeing few champions for their anxieties about status, purpose, and financial security,” she wrote in February. “Their issues seldom enter mainstream discourse, and some feel they are paying the price for the offences of older men, accumulating “demerit points” simply for being male.”
Dr Chowdhury added that figures such as Joe Rogan and Andrew Tate “offer these young men validation, community, and a sense of belonging.”
“Podcasts, with their unfiltered, intimate appeal, create a space where the men feel heard – especially as mainstream institutions fail to address their disorientation,” she explained.
Melbourne University’s Professor Mark Davis echoed these sentiments last month, in an article explaining the rise of the online ‘manosphere’ and ‘manfluencers’.
“[These men] base their business model on harvesting the despair and powerlessness felt by many young men,” he explained. “They offer validation and a sense of identity to counter the uncertainty many feel… [they] target women and feminism as the reason for the problems men experience.”
Meanwhile, recent data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey found that Gen Z men (born 1997-2012) are more likely to hold traditional gender beliefs than older men—and far more compared to their female peers. The analysis found that while beliefs in traditional gender roles have been declining across generations, Gen Z men remain the exception.
Research economist Erin Clarke noted that shifting economic opportunities may be contributing to the divergence between young men and women.
“Whether beliefs about traditional gender norms translate directly into political preferences is unclear. Nonetheless, segmenting by age alone may mask important variations within a cohort. Gender is one dimension where differences are emerging,” she said last month.