A new article in the Times, drawing on Financial Times and Economist data, finds a growing youth political gender gap. I beat them to it in these pages, but no hard feelings: it’s a trend that deserves attention. And while Andrew Tate isn’t exactly the best role model, today’s young men haven’t moved Right. Instead, the story is about young women in Western countries moving in the opposite direction, specifically because they have become more socially progressive.
The timing of the new female progressivism, taking off in the early-to-mid 2010s, coincides with the rise of the social media-smartphone nexus, when apps such as Instagram and TikTok soared in popularity. This has been associated, as Jonathan Haidt notes in his recent book, The Anxious Generation, with a surge in mental illness — especially among young women. At the same time, there has been a jump in the share of young people — again, more female than male — identifying as LGBT. Finally, this marched in lockstep with a veritable explosion of campus no-platformings and campaigns to fire professors for speech deemed offensive to progressive sensibilities.
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Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics at Birkbeck College, University of London and an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute.
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