Modern WisdomWhy Women Have Become Much More Liberal Than Men - Daniel Cox
At a glance
WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT
Why Gen Z Women Lean Left As Young Men Check Out Politically
- Pollster Daniel Cox explains a historically large ideological gap emerging between young American women and men, driven mostly by women becoming markedly more liberal since around 2014 while young men stay moderate and increasingly disengaged. He links this to MeToo, abortion politics, rising LGBTQ identification, higher female college attendance, and social media–fuelled perceptions of gender and safety. Young men, meanwhile, feel dislocated, under‑served by institutions, and are withdrawing from politics, dating, religion, and civic life, often retreating into online worlds. Both hosts argue that social media, decreasing in‑person sociability, and declining trust are amplifying gender antagonism and a zero‑sum view of empathy between the sexes.
IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING
5 ideasThe gender ideological gap among young Americans is historically large and driven mainly by women moving left.
Gallup and other long‑running surveys show young women’s liberal identification rising to the low‑40% range since about 2014, while young men’s ideology remains comparatively flat, creating a 12–14 point gap that did not exist a decade ago.
MeToo, abortion, and a sense of ‘linked fate’ have politically galvanized young women.
Qualitative interviews reveal MeToo as a formative generational experience that created a shared sense of vulnerability and solidarity; the Dobbs decision made abortion a top‑tier priority for young women but not young men, further polarizing their issue agendas.
Rising LGBTQ identification and higher female college attendance structurally tilt young women leftward.
About one in three young women now identify as LGBTQ, a group that is strongly liberal, and women are significantly outpacing men in higher education—both demographic trends that correlate with more progressive views even beyond any single political event.
Young men are not necessarily more conservative, but they are more disaffected and politically homeless.
Many young men dislike both parties, care less about specific issues, and feel their problems are dismissed; this breeds disengagement and makes them somewhat more open to Republican appeals that explicitly address male struggles.
Online life amplifies perceived gender antagonism and erodes trust.
Social media and dating apps disproportionately surface extreme stories and bad actors, normalize sexual harassment in digital spaces, and encourage people to model the opposite sex on outliers, producing hypervigilance, pessimism about relationships, and low generalized trust—especially among youth.
WORDS WORTH SAVING
5 quotesWe can safely say that something really big is happening.
— Daniel Cox
Young men feel like their problems are being dismissed out of hand as whining from a patriarchy that they no longer feel a part of.
— Daniel Cox (quoting Christine Emba)
We’re really, really bad at trying to hold these two different ideas in our hands at the same time: that there’s been progress in terms of gender equality, but there are still structural disadvantages for women, and increasingly unique problems that young men are facing.
— Daniel Cox
If you spend most of your time and learn about the world through the internet, you get a biased view toward crazy stories.
— Chris Williamson
I’m a little bit of a resident pessimist. I can’t not look at this data and think, ‘Wow, what is happening?’
— Daniel Cox
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