Gen Z and Millennials may be known for their leftist passions; some may not even be able to answer the question, “What is a woman?” Nonetheless, a majority are taking at least one very “conservative” position:
They say that “women’s rights” have gone too far, according to a recent study.
Per News.com.au:
New research conducted by Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London found that over half of people in younger generations believe the push for equality is now negatively impacting men and that they are being expected to do “too much” to support progress.
The survey collated the responses from more than 22,500 people aged 16-74 across 32 countries, including approximately 1000 people from Australia.
According to the results, 52 per cent of Gen Z [born between 1997 and 2012] and 53 per cent of Millennials [born roughly between 1981 and 1996] agree that “we have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men”.
This is compared to 46 per cent of Gen X and 40 per cent of Baby Boomers.
In fact, many of the questions showed that younger generations were less supportive of efforts to advance gender equality than Boomers.
For Australia, 51 per cent strongly or somewhat agreed with the above statement, compared to 41 per cent who disagreed, with 60 per cent of those who agreed men.
When it came to the claim that things have “gone far enough” in giving women equal rights with men, 55 per cent of Gen Z and 57 per cent of Millennials agreed.
This is compared to 53 per cent of Gen X and 47 per cent Boomers.
Interestingly, while it’s well known that people have been increasingly reluctant to express politically incorrect sentiments for fear of cancel culture, it appears that, on the sexual “equality” issue, the worm may be starting to turn just a smidgen, at least in the U.K. As The Telegraph reports:
The survey conducted for International Women’s Day also found that people in Britain are increasingly afraid of promoting women’s rights for fear of reprisals.
The share of the British public who say they are scared to speak out and advocate for the equal rights of women has doubled since 2017, rising from 14 per cent to 29 per cent.
…Younger generations tend to be be most fearful, with Gen Z (38 per cent) around twice as likely as baby boomers (19 per cent) to feel this way.
So why are younger generations more skeptical about so-called women’s rights than their elders? Perhaps it boils down to experience — not more of it, but the bitter pill of it.
One characteristic of the Romanticism period (~1790-1850), which many consider a response to the “Enlightenment,” was the idealization of women. This continued, essentially, through the various feminist “waves” even as women, owing to our societal decay, became less ideal. Regardless, an anti-male atmosphere developed in our society so noticeable that by 2000 already, author Christina Hoff Sommers would publish her book The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men.
And for a long time now, boys have been raised being told — by teachers and/or through media and/or entertainment — that they’re privileged beneficiaries of a “patriarchal” culture. But that’s not their experience.
They hear that it’s girls “who need extra help in school and elsewhere in a society that favors boys,” reads Sommers’s book summary — even as they notice that the girls get better grades, win most of the academic awards, and are favored by an almost exclusively female teacher corps. Moreover, they’re then told their problem “is that they are boys” and that we “need to change their nature,” the summary adds. “We have to make them more like … girls.”
The boys also may observe that girls may be allowed to play on their sports teams; all they need be is “good enough.” Yet the boys can’t play on the girls’ teams no matter how good they are. What’s more, this standard wasn’t established in the spirit of, “Well, boys are better athletically, so it’s OK.” For the longest time, in fact, saying that brought sexism charges. No, the cry was “Equality!”
The kicker: When boys finally could start entering girls’ sports — by masquerading as females (the “trans” phenomenon) — the feminists cried “Unfair!”
When (if) the boys get to college, they may find out that perhaps 55 or 60 percent of the student-athletes must be female, to match women’s majority percentage of the student body, under Title IX dictates and in “proportionality’s” name. But if proportionality is so important, the lads could wonder, why don’t the powers that be ensure that the student-body is ~50 percent male, to match men’s percentage of the wider population?
Then there’s how 75 percent of Ivy League presidents and 66 percent of college administrators are female, numerical dominance achieved via “equality” and “diversity” appeals. There’s also how intersex pay gaps are noticed and decried when they favor men, such as in sports, but are ignored completely when they favor women, such as with fashion models.
Finally, though, there’s the elephant in the room: male-only military drafts. As Australian commentator Bettina Arndt wrote at Substack last year, using Ukraine as an example, “Suddenly, after decades of feminist demands for women to be allowed to take their rightful place alongside men in the services,” we revert “to old-fashioned chivalry which demands only men are disposable” — whenever there’s actually a war.
Equality?
So it also may occur to young men, if they’re really clever, that with responsibility should come authority, and with authority, responsibility. How can feminists demand equal authority in society while accepting a standard wherein the greatest responsibility people could have — to fight and perhaps die for their country — is only demanded of men?
The answer now, perhaps, is that equality is passé; the Left has conveniently moved on to “equity,” a new euphemism for officially sanctioned discrimination and a justification for unequal, wokester-approved outcomes.
So why are young men turning against “women’s rights”? Maybe they’re realizing that “rights” itself has become a euphemism — for privileges, preferences, prestige, and power.
