[[link removed]]

YOUNG WOMEN ARE THE MOST PROGRESSIVE GROUP IN AMERICAN HISTORY. YOUNG
MEN ARE CHECKED OUT  
[[link removed]]


 

Carter Sherman
August 7, 2024
The Guardian
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Gen Z is seeing a ‘historic reverse gender gap’, with women
poised to outpace men across virtually every measure of political
involvement. _

Protesters march through the streets of Manhattan, New York, Sunday,
June 7, 2020. , (AP Photo / Seth Wenig)

 

When Donald Trump
[[link removed]] strutted on to the
stage at the Republican national convention last month, it was to a
raucous cover of James Brown’s It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s
World. The song credits men with inventing cars, trains, lights,
boats, toys and commerce. The message was not subtle. At least, not to
Melissa Deckman.

“This idea of America needing someone who is a strong masculine
figure – I think the Republican campaign this year is doing it even
in a more pronounced and overt way than it did in 2016,” said
Deckman, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute. “You have a
lot of younger men admiring the strength of Trump – or what they
think is strong.”

Deckman would know. In her forthcoming book The Politics of Gen Z: How
the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy, she dives into the deep
political divides between gen Z women and men and explores how they
feel about growing up in the Trump era. Based on interviews with
roughly 90 gen Z political activists, numerous focus groups and
extensive polling, Deckman has identified what she calls a “historic
reverse gender gap”.

She has found that gen Z men are becoming more conservative
[[link removed]] as
well as increasingly indifferent to politics, bucking longstanding
trends, dating back at least to the 1970s, that saw young people
across the board voting liberal and men being generally more involved
in politics than women. Meanwhile, gen Z women have not only become
the most progressive cohort in US history but are also expected to
outpace their male peers across virtually every measure of political
involvement, such as donating money, volunteering for campaigns,
registering people to vote – and, of course, voting.

Young women were outstripping men on political engagement well
before Joe Biden
[[link removed]] stepped aside in favor
of Kamala Harris [[link removed]],
setting the internet ablaze with memes and teeing up yet another
presidential contest between Trump
[[link removed]] and a woman. Now,
with Harris the presumptive Democratic nominee, a generation
already riven by a canyon-wide political gender gap is watching a
contest between a woman who could become the nation’s first Black
and south Asian female president and a man who likes calling women
“nasty”.

“For me, the question come November is gonna be: to what extent do
attitudes about gender influence the vote for Trump?” Deckman asked.

Polls indicate that young men’s views on gender, femininity and
masculinity are rapidly shifting. In 2022, 49% of gen Z men said that
the United States had become “too soft and feminine”, Deckman
found. Just a year later, 60% of gen Z men said the same. Deckman
found that those who agreed with the statement were far more likely to
have voted for Trump in 2016 – even after controlling for political
party.

No matter their age, women have long voted at higher rates than men
– but that is the only political activity where they have
consistently exceeded men. Men
[[link removed]] historically donated more,
volunteered with campaigns more and otherwise participated in
political life more. This year, Deckman believes young women will
surpass young men not only at voting, but in all political activities.

Democrats have historically had a firm grip on voters under 30 – a
grip they may now be losing. Gen Z men, Deckman noted, have
“reverted to the mean of men”: while they’re not necessarily
more conservative that most men, they are more conservative than their
millennial counterparts.

Not all men

These trends are even more pronounced among white gen Z men. If you
combine the number of independent gen Z men who lean Republican with
those who identify as Republicans, Deckman said, young white men
“look very conservative compared to even older white men”. She
believes Trump will probably win young white men.

In 2020, 49% of white men between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for
Biden, according to an analysis of AP VoteCast data by the Center for
Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Meanwhile,
42% voted for Trump.

The damage that could do to Harris, however, is mitigated by the fact
that white men make up a shrinking segment of gen Z. About half of
gen Z is white, making it the most diverse generation in US history.
Several polls have suggested that Trump could win among young Black
and Latino men – a claim that Deckman eyes with suspicion,
especially since Harris has entered the race and the GOP seems unable
to stop themselves from making racist comments about her. Some
Republicans have started calling
[[link removed]] Harris
the “first DEI president”.

Deckman’s surveys have found that gen Z men are less likely than
their female counterparts to say that racial equality is important to
them, but 45% do believe that it’s important, including 52% of
Black gen Z men.

“If Donald Trump uses misogynistic, racist language toward Kamala
Harris, I think the net effect for young men will be more off-putting
than not,” Deckman said. “The end result for him is a net
negative. It’s also, of course, wrong.”

‘They don’t care’

Another mitigating factor could help Harris: young men don’t seem
all that interested in politics, period.

“They don’t care,” Deckman said. In surveys, “I asked them:
what are you passionate about? What issues are critically important to
you? There’s like 20% gaps between young men and young women on
everything.”

In addition to caring more about issues like LGBTQ+ rights and
abortion, as might be expected, gen Z women care more about economic
issues like inflation, jobs and unemployment, which are typically
thought to be more important to men. (LGBTQ+ zoomers also cared
equally or more about every issue than straight zoomers.) Even men who
agree that the US is too “soft and feminine” don’t feel more
motivated to act. Instead, it is Democratic women who reject that
notion who tend to get more involved in politics.

While young men fall behind women in political engagement, women have,
over the last few decades, gone to college and joined the workforce at
higher and higher rates. These trends are not unrelated. The more
education and money you have, the more likely you are to be invested
in politics.

Feeling like your rights are under “direct threat” also increases
political involvement – and in the age of Trump, #MeToo and the fall
of Roe v Wade, plenty of gen Z women feel like their rights are under
threat. Gen Z men just don’t feel the same urgency.

Surprisingly, there is one area of political involvement where young
men and women feel similarly: they are both deeply uninterested in
running for office. Women
[[link removed]] have long been less
interested in running for office than men. But as of 2022, Deckman
found, only 6% of gen Z men said they definitely planned to run for
office, while 4% of gen Z women said the same. Despite women’s
political enthusiasm, zoomers as a whole remain unconvinced that
joining government is worth it.

“Gen Z is far less likely to be confident in the federal government,
in the media, in organized religion, in the police, in the criminal
justice system,” Deckman said. “This is just endemic to a
generation of young people who have grown up in one crisis after
another.”

_Carter Sherman is a reproductive health and justice reporter at
Guardian US_

* young women
[[link removed]]
* Protest
[[link removed]]
* gen z
[[link removed]]
* young men
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]