Social media sparks the Gen Z gender gap

In the past six years, a Gallup poll has found that men's and women's political values have been slowly shifting apart due to technological developments such as social media and lifestyle influencers. San Diego State University Interim Dean of The College of Arts and Letters Ronnee Schreiber explained how social media can promote inaccurate information and extremist agendas.

 

“We look to sources that affirm our existing opinions or values. That’s always been the case,” Schreiber said. “Now, it is much easier for people to have their views affirmed. To speak in vacuums where no one is challenging them. That’s a huge problem.”

 

According to some polls, most of Gen Z is politically outspoken and more likely to participate in activism online. The political gender gap affects Gen Z’s satisfaction with their life's social and romantic aspects. Some women find themselves in uncomfortable situations that escalate over politics or other social issues.

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Overruling Roe v. Wade pushes women to the left

 

“There have been significant attacks on women's rights that affect young women very significantly,” Schreiber said. “I think a lot of young women took for granted that they would have easy access and legal access to abortion. And as we know, that is no longer the case in many places."

 

A few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned, 22 million American women were located in states that had enacted abortion bans or heavy restrictions. Harm has come to millions more women a year later as bans make healthcare providers unwilling to perform life-saving procedures on pregnant women in need.

 

For many Gen Z women, abortion is the most impactful social justice issue on their minds. More than half of the women surveyed by the American Survey Center said abortion is a critical issue for them. However, Gen Z men don’t seem to be following their counterparts, and Gen Z men are less likely to identify as feminists than Millenial men.

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The effects of manosphere influencers

 

Montana State University senior Olivia Wiemholt said she felt one of her former partners' behaviors were triggering when he was around outwardly right-wing friends. She said that even if the conversations weren’t necessarily political, her partner and his friends would instigate arguments by bringing up harmful rhetoric surrounding women.

 

“They would just make comments that were very out of pocket, especially when I was around,” Wiemholt said. “If I brought up that I was uncomfortable, my partner just didn’t care.”

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She said her relationship wasn’t always this way and noticed the videos on her ex’s feed started to change. Suddenly, her partner consumed hyper-masculine videos about big trucks and big muscles. Wiemholt’s ex could likely have tumbled down the pipeline of “manly” videos right into the lap of manosphere influencers such as Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan.

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Schreiber said she agreed that the increase in the gap could be attributed to the worship of some of these toxic influencers. She said the affirmation of these beliefs could then filter into the political dynamics of the Republican Party, making it difficult for centrists to be heard over right-wing individuals.

 

“There then becomes a community that folks who already slightly feel that way or feel alienated can kind of resonate with,” she said. “Those kinds of sources in the media of toxic masculinity are not new, but I think the form and the constant saturation of it is probably what has created this effect.”

 

Political polarization causes relationships to struggle

 

The gender divide could be attributed to the popularity of influencers such as Tate because the algorithm will push similar content, creating an environment that no opposing viewpoints can penetrate. This has an effect that Stanford University Fellow Alice Evans calls “ideological polarization” — in politics, it manifests as an oversaturation of scandalous news of the opposition and agreeable sentiments.

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“All that gets amplified by social media filter bubbles,” Evans said in a CBS News broadcast. “And as we self-select information and news, we then get cocooned in these echo chambers of agreement, righteous resistance and very little debate.”

 

Influencers such as Tate have opportunized the polarization and created profitable corners of the Internet that are hostile toward women and push misogynistic narratives. Due to the gender divide, Evans said, there could also be instability in heterosexual relationships and marriages. As women today wait longer to have children, their prospects of settling down into marriage or domestic partnership are even slimmer.

 

However, Schreiber argues that too many variables are involved in family formation and marriage to say whether the gender gap will affect them. She said that the gender gap could be a very minor part of the larger trend of women waiting to marry.

 

“There's just so many other socio-economic variables involved in why women choose marriage,” she said. “I don't know how strong that would be versus career goals or financial situation, so I'm reluctant to say that. I don’t know what would count as a variable.”

 

Will Gen Z divide the White House?

 

Whether students have felt the effects of the gender divide or not, its reach is widespread; research shows that the gap has also widened in China and South Korea. Most experts agree the tension is caused by the decrease in economic success brought about by the pandemic and other events. In the U.S., the gap could also be emphasized by the aggressive dissent created during the upcoming presidential election on both sides of the spectrum.

 

Until the election, experts won’t know for sure whether the gender divide will be taken to the polls. With Gen Z being the most diverse generation, it makes sense why there would be a battle for the White House. The intersectional experience of young men and women possibly exceeds their predecessors, but the gap must be researched more to figure out how long it will persist.