Masculinity and women's equality: UK report finds emerging gender divide in young people's attitudes

Young people's attitudes to masculinity and women's equality show signs of an emerging gender divide, with the views of men and women often differing more within younger, rather than older, generations, according to a new report.

The findings, from King's College London's Policy Institute and Global Institute for Women's Leadership in partnership with Ipsos UK, show the gender split in views is starkest among the young when it comes to how helpful the term "toxic masculinity" is, whether it's harder to be a man than a woman today, whether feminism has done more good or harm to society, and approval of the influencer Andrew Tate.

The research—which is based on a representative survey of 3,716 people aged 16+ using the Ipsos UK online random probability KnowledgePanel—also shows that in some cases young men today are no more supportive of action on gender equality than older men, despite their generally being more socially liberal, and that young men tend to be more worried about the challenges facing men.

Is 'toxic masculinity' a helpful term?

By 41% to 22%, the public are twice as likely to say "toxic masculinity" is an unhelpful rather than helpful term.

And while younger people overall have a more favorable view of this phrase, there is a big gender divide in views among them: 37% of men aged 16 to 29 say "toxic masculinity" is an unhelpful phrase, roughly double the 19% of young women who feel this way. Correspondingly, young women (47%) are considerably more likely than young men (29%)—or any other age category—to find it a helpful term.

By contrast, views among older age groups vary less by gender—although older men are more likely than younger men to say "toxic masculinity" is an unhelpful term.

Young people are most divided by gender on whether women or men have it tougher today

Around half (48%) the public think it's harder to be a woman than a man today, while one in seven (14%) say the reverse.

The biggest gender gap in views is seen among the youngest generation: women aged 16 to 29 are especially likely to say it is harder to be a woman, with 68% feeling this way, compared with 35% of men of the same age.

Among men, it is the oldest who are least likely to say that men have it harder: 17% of men aged 60+ feel this way, compared with 25% of men aged 16 to 59.

And when asked if women in the UK generally have better or worse lives than men today, men aged 60+ (12%) are less likely than younger and middle-aged men (19%) to say women have better lives.

3 in 10 young men think it'll be harder to be a man than a woman in 20 years' time

One in six (17%) of the UK public overall believe that in 20 years' time it will be harder to be a man than a woman.

Men aged 16 to 29 (30%) are almost twice as likely to feel this way, including 19% who think it'll be much harder to be a man.

On the other hand, it is women of this age (48%) who are most likely to say it'll be harder to be a woman than a man two decades from now, meaning this youngest group is the most divided by gender on what the future will look like.

Young men are notably less positive than young women about the impact of feminism

Overall, just over four in 10 (43%) think feminism has done more good to society than harm, while only 12% think it has done more harm than good.

Among those aged 16 to 29, 46% of women think feminism has done more good to society than harm—10 percentage points higher than the share of young men who feel this way (36%).

And within this age group, one in six (16%) men say feminism has done more harm than good, compared with one in 11 (9%) women.