A third of Gen Z men want women to obey their husbands because they believe this lie

Nearly a third of Gen Z men think a wife should obey her husband.

And while we wish we could say we’re surprised, in a world where Reform believes we should tax childless women, our abortion rights are under attack, and the government refuses to make misogyny a hate crime, it’s merely the latest blow to feminism.

A global study of 23,000 people found Gen Z men hold more anti-women views than Baby Boomers, with 33% of younger men believing a husband should have the final word on important decisions.

The research by Ipsos and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College London surveyed people from 29 countries, including the UK and the US, and also found 24% of men born from 1997 to 2012 think women shouldn’t be too independent or self-sufficient.

At the same time, Gen Z men were also the most likely (41%) to believe women who have a successful career were more attractive to men. We’ll just leave that one there.

A stark difference in opinion between older and younger men also arose when the topic of sex came up; an alarming 21% of Gen Z men say a ‘real woman’ shouldn’t ever initiate sex, compared to just 7% of boomer men.

Perhaps even more concerningly, 59% of Gen Z men said they were expected to do too much to support equality.

Men may feel hard done by, but women aren’t the problem

For Kathryn Higgins, a Goldsmiths professor of global digital politics, with a keen interest in feminism and gender, these attitudes are ‘deeply troubling’ — but the universal hardship we currently face is a major contributor.

‘Young people of all genders are really suffering in this country under an economic system that continues to widen the gap between the richest few and the rest, and fails to create real opportunities for young people to live the kinds of lives they always hoped they’d live,’ professor Higgins tells Metro.

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With the help of our partners at Women’s Aid, This Is Not Right aims to shine a light on the sheer scale of this national emergency.

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Kathryn believes this creates an incredibly tough backdrop for having serious conversations about power and privilege with young men, many of whom ‘can’t find stable and fairly compensated employment, can’t afford housing, and are facing the prospect of a life much less comfortable than their parents.’

‘Understandably,’ she explains, they ‘rankle at the suggestion that they are part of an advantaged group’.

‘They don’t feel advantaged — but that doesn’t mean they’re not,’ the professor continues.

‘Nor does it mean that gender equality is to blame for their struggles, though many actors (from politicians to manosphere influencers) have popped up to try and capitalise on young men’s dissatisfaction for their own political and financial gain.’

You only have to look as far as Trump and Farage, who have both endorsed ‘alpha male’ spearhead Andrew Tate, to get an idea of who is perpetuating these ideals.

Some men don’t like having less control than before

Of course, rising misogyny and regressive gender attitudes amongst Gen Z men aren’t just a result of the cost of living crisis.

Kathryn notes: ‘Young women also need jobs, and houses, and are also gravely harmed by the system as it currently operates, but their reaction has broadly been to expect more from the men in their lives, not less.’

According to professor Higgins, this means young women are no longer coerced socially and financially into partnerships with men who aren’t interested in being their equal.

‘They can instead choose to be single, become solo parents if they so desire, or to enter partnerships with other women,’ she explains.

‘It’s unsurprising that young men feel like they have less control in their intimate relationships with women than in previous generations, because they do.’

However, she also points out that this doesn’t mean women now have power over men, we simply have autonomy.

‘If anything, young women now have renewed threats of violence and coercion from some young men who yearn not for futures of equal partnership, but for a fantasy of female subordination,’ Kathryn adds.

And professor Heejung Chung, director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership and the leader of this research project, agrees, saying: ‘I think there are a lot of grievances, a lot of fear of men losing social positions.

‘There’s a vacuum that’s being filled with rhetoric and voices which are trying to pitch young men against gender equality, against young women, against migrants.’

What’s the solution?

The key, professor Higgins says, is to not fall into the trap of scapegoating women.

‘These actors seek to weaponise young men’s feelings of powerlessness for their own gain, be that by pulling them deeper into an online manosphere that makes money off their attention, or by pulling them towards the political right,’ she continues.

‘“Wouldn’t your life be easier,” these actors encourage young men to wonder, “if you didn’t have to compete with women for jobs, didn’t have to worry about women’s experiences, and had a live-in subordinate at home?”.’

While it’s not a simple fix, the professor says the only solution is to take the economic and ecological violence perpetrated against all young people seriously, and to fight back against those capitalising on the dissatisfaction of young men.’

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