Politics Is Driving Young Men and Women Apart

The story

In recent years, men and women have diverged along stark political lines. Accelerating since former President Donald Trump assumed office, men increasingly identify as Republicans and women as Democrats.

Especially among young voters, men and women are intensely divergent on a host of political priorities, from climate change to gender identity to illegal migration. Since the 1990s, voters under 30 have been a critical building block of the left coalition.

As the Democrat Party shifts further left, and young men perceive it as being uninterested in their needs, they depart for the GOP. Likewise, young women are attracted to Democrat messaging on issues like abortion, gun violence, and “threats to democracy.”

While divides between men and women are clearly evident in political expression, the problems are much deeper than politics. The divergence impacts social life among young people, the expanding crises of loneliness and masculinity in Western culture, and family formation.

The politics

Politicians have been slow to consider measures to heal the divide. After years of failed attempts, political scientist and men's rights advocate Dr. Warren Farrell continues to support creation of a White House Council on Boys and Men to parallel an existing committee for girls and women. President Biden replaced the prior women’s council with the Gender Policy Council, which focuses on women’s issues.

In June, progressive Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she was fighting for DEI policies while Republicans are keeping workplaces white and male. Divisive language is ineffective at engaging men in the conversation.

Only recently has the Democrat party tried to address men’s concerns. In a surprising about-face from decades of norms, the party embraced white men as an identity group last month in a highly lucrative Zoom fundraiser, “White Dues for Harris.” Mirrored by a similar function for black men, the events clumsily spoke to a population politicians can no longer ignore.

Populist right Republicans are the loudest voices addressing problems of young men, signaling the GOP’s intention of recruiting them. Right populists are equally interested in crafting policy which supports and incentivizes family formation amid America’s dwindling population.

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) proposed legislation to strengthen healthcare for moms and newborns and alleviate the serious financial burden new families face. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) harkens to ancient and mythic visions of manliness in his book Manhood, which venerates a traditional Christian vision of masculinity and family.

Zooming out

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Richard Reeves, author of Of Boys and Men, highlights another crisis ruining boys' lives and adversely affecting society: the alarming rate of father absence. One in four boys does not live with his father, and one in twelve boys has no contact at all with his dad — which engenders inferior life outcomes.

Surveys find a strong and growing divergence between young men’s and women’s values. Primary concerns held by young women are political and care-oriented, such as “domestic violence, sexual harassment, child abuse and neglect, and mental health problems.” Young men’s primary concerns are apolitical virtues like “competition, bravery, and honor.”

Some men feel that major institutions where women excel, like universities and corporate offices, no longer represent their values and provide unfair advantages to women via DEI initiatives. They feel alienated by an environment that propagandizes to them about their “privilege” and their role in the “patriarchy,” so they increasingly opt out.

Further, differing life paths increasingly chosen by men and women exacerbate class differences. Despite fewer men attending college, educated liberal women still want to date men similar to them in social class, education, and politics. Strong preferences in dating and marriage are another dimension of polarization that creates inequality and hurts family formation.

While men and women increasingly self-segregate along gender lines, they do the same along political lines, as evidenced by Gen-Z’s unwillingness to date across the aisle — or lower on the attractiveness spectrum. NYU Professor of Marketing Scott Galloway says, “Mating inequality [in the US] is greater than income inequality in Venezuela.”

Social dysfunction afflicting Gen-Z dates back decades. Helicopter parenting hindered development of conflict resolution and social skills. Relationship hurdles are exacerbated by mediating them with highly politicized social media which continues to inflame the issue into adulthood.

A whopping 63 percent of men age 18-29 are single. And, a staggering 15 percent of men have no close friends, while far more have very few.

Why it matters

The growing political divide between men and women is only the beginning of a vicious cycle of social instability that generates new forms of extreme inequality in the U.S. Technologies like social media which allow men and women to hyper-segregate, as well as ineffective parenting, bear much of the blame for this ballooning social crisis.

An underclass of millions of young men now lack an intimate relationship, have little life-purpose, are prone to conspiracy theories, and are drawn to “red pill” online influencers for guidance. They don’t know where else to turn. Public policy can incentivize marriage and relationships, but drawing men and women together again will require an enormous societal shift.