While young people (Gen Z) are generally more progressive than post-war generations, there is a growing gender split as young men move further to the right, while young women veer left.
Reports show that young men are being drawn to the far right. They were more likely than women to vote for Donald Trump in the United States, the latter overwhelmingly voting for Kamala Harris.
US exit polls showed that about 49% of male voters, aged 18–29, voted for Trump, and about 38% of women.
In the recent German elections, this trend was repeated. More young men voted for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
While an alarming 21% of 18–24-year-olds voted for the AfD, slightly more — 25% — voted for Die Linke (The Left). Among this cohort, the traditional conservative and social democratic parties and the Greens received between 11–13% each.
Broken down by gender, 24% of men voted for the AfD, compared to 17% of women. Only 7% of men voted for Die Linke compared to 10% of women.
Similar dynamics are emerging in Australia. Recent polling shows 32% of 18–34 year old men support the Coalition, compared to just 25% of women the same age.
Young women are also far more likely to support the Greens (32%) than young men (20%), while 36% of men favor Labor, compared to 32% of women.
What is going on?
The decline in living standards has taken place under both Labor and the Coalition’s neoliberal policies. Consequently, young people are looking for alternatives to the left and right.
One reason for young people’s disillusionment with the traditional big parties is their failure to provide the basics many of their parents enjoyed: free or nearly free education and, compared to now, job and housing security.
Given that the far right is cashed up, and it can count on loyal lieutenants in the corporate media, its recruitment strategy is quite simple: it manipulates young people’s real fears about falling real wages, cost-of-living pressures and insecure work and housing into a blame game against migrants, women or anyone dubbed “woke”.
Blame is never attributed to the real culprit — capitalism.
Globally, the far right is having success pushing its anti-immigration, transphobia, racism and misogyny as reasons for people’s lives becoming harder.
This attack line is enabled by the traditional parties which, at least in Australia, have a shameful record of blaming small cohorts of asylum seekers for many social ills.
Marga Ferré, co-president of Transform Europe, argues that the rise of the far right is driven by “backlash by those who are losing their privileges, or fear losing them”.
As understanding grows about how patriarchy is intrinsic to capitalism, as well as decolonial and anti-capitalist struggles, Ferré suggests that the rise of the far right is a “reaction, first and foremost (though not only)” against feminism.
Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya and Nancy Fraser write in their Feminism for the 99% that mass disillusion with the traditional parties of government makes anticapitalist feminism “become thinkable today”.
They argue that feminism for the 99% can only come about by connecting anti-racists, environmentalists, labour and migrant rights activists to “rise to the challenge of our times”.
The dots are being connected by a younger generation, which is why the far-right is pushing back with an anti-feminist agenda that draws on entrenched patriarchal and misogynist ideas.
Social media pushes misogyny
Big Tech’s predatory social media platform algorithms are pushing far-right propaganda.
Research by the US National Library of Medicine found that the far right had used social media to “shift public rhetoric from embracing diversity to a homogenous society where … a country rooted in immigrants is closing doors on immigration.”
It said social media platforms X and TikTok were pushing posts supporting the AfD, among other far right content, ahead of the German elections.
It found that 74% of political content on TikTok ahead of the elections was right-leaning, as was 72% on X and 59% on Instagram. The platforms even pushed pro-AFD and far right content from accounts users do not follow.
This is unsurprising given that the platforms are controlled by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg — the richest people in the world and beacons of toxic masculinity.
Lynnette McIntire of Global Rights for Women said this misogynistic language and messaging is resonating with young men. The 1970s “Our Bodies, Our Choice” pro-choice campaign battle cry had been inverted by misogynist influencers in the US elections to “Your Body, My Choice”.
McIntire said a “get back to the kitchen” movement was promoting the so-called “trad wife” role and even using social media to repeal women’s right to vote.
This movement says men are being “oppressed” because they have lost their “status” because of laws promoting equality.
Women are also being blamed for: men’s lower levels of education compared to women; job opportunities lost to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and being asked for “onerous” childcare support.
Popular culture is now rife with misogynistic tropes and social media turbocharges its impact.
Online gender-based violence is also on the rise, with research from 2018–21 showing between 16-58% of women have experienced it.
The far right also uses alternative media, such as podcasts, to recruit young men to its movement. The Joe Rogan Experience, the third most popular podcast in the US on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, provides far-right influencers like Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson with a platform. Men make up 80% of its listeners.
Young women more progressive
While young men are being drawn to the far-right, young women are more concerned about abortion rights, LGBTIQ rights, racism, unemployment and the rising cost-of-living.
For many Gen Z women, the #MeToo movement, which exposed the extent of rape culture and misogyny, also helped them understand how patriarchy upholds capitalism’s structural inequality.
The #MeToo movement helped reinvigorate movements for womens’ rights around the world. The far-right push back, with the scrapping of the US’ main abortion law, has been building since then.
Long way to go
Women’s rights are also being eroded because laws stipulating equality are either not being enforced, or are being weakened.
Women are still paid significantly less than men across the board, with female-dominated professions paid substantially less male-dominated ones.
The overwhelming majority of unpaid care and household work is still being carried out by women. This work, in Australia, is estimated to be valued at $650 billion, more than half of gross domestic product.
The ABC reported last July that female teachers and students are facing increasing misogynistic behaviour in schools, including sexist remarks, sexual harassment and threats of violence.
A devastating 101 women were killed in 2024, according to Australian Femicide Watch. At least 11 women have already been killed this year.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that one in six women had experienced physical or sexual abuse at the hands of a partner, since the age of 15. One in four had experienced emotional abuse.
It also found that one in five women had experienced sexual violence.
Most young people believe in equality and oppose attacks on women’s rights, but a small section is being won over by the misogynistic ideas perpetuated online.
However, with Trump in the White House, the misogyny offensive is being laid bare. It is up to us to build a strong, grassroots intersectional movement which rejects the far right’s attempts to push misogyny, racism and transphobia to uphold capitalism.
[Join International Women’s Day rallies and the Stop Killing Women national day of action on March 15.]