The gap is beginning to favor (younger) women

BarcelonaThe rise of anti-feminism among young people is not only a cultural reaction to the advancement of women's rights. It is also the result of "growing economic precariousness," which has particularly affected working-class men without university degrees. This is the response of European Policy Centre analyst Javier Carbonell to a question that political scientists have been asking about the penetration of these far-right discourses among new generations. "In recent decades, young men have experienced a real decline in terms of income, wealth, employment levels, purchasing power, university education, and mental health," the report explains. From provider to precarious worker: How young men's economic decline fuels anti-feminist backlash, developed by this Brussels-based think tank.

According to data from the European Union's statistical office, Eurostat, younger women were already earning more than men in some European Union countries by 2023. For example, in Belgium, women under 25 earn 8.3% more than men of the same age; and those between 25 and 34, 5% more. In the younger segment, this effect is also repeated in France (7.2%), Greece (4.4%), Malta (2%), and Finland (0.5%). Only in Malta is the gap also favorable to women aged 25 to 34, at 4.3%. In Spain, the difference benefiting men is practically zero among younger men, just 0.4%, but it progressively increases with age and reaches 33.3% for those over 65.

"Once they are past their youth, women continue to have it much worse than men as they get older, due to the great impact that motherhood has," says Carbonell, who is also deputy director of the think tank Future Policy Lab. In fact, looking at the EU as a whole, on average women still earn 12.7% less per hour than men, and the study highlights that they are still underrepresented in the governments and parliaments of the member states. Furthermore, it highlights that the burden of household chores falls "disproportionately" on women, with 91% of mothers spending at least one hour a day on caregiving compared to 30% of fathers.

Carbonell points out that although the recent crises—both in income and access to housing—have harmed both genders, there are some factors that have more directly affected young working-class men. While the employment rate among women under 24 has increased in recent decades, it has fallen for young men. In several Western countries, his study points out, this indicator is equal or favorable to women. On the contrary, the percentage of young men who are neither working nor studying has increased throughout Europe. In the United Kingdom, France, Spain, and Canada, young men who are out of the labor market have outnumbered young women for the first time in history. This "economic decline" among young men, the researcher argues, has not been caused by an improvement in the situation of women, but rather by "structural economic changes" such as increased inequality and automation, which have proportionally affected men who perform manual labor more.

The Impact of Education

Carbonell also emphasizes the importance of education, a field in which women have made the most progress. In the EU, 48.8% of women between the ages of 25 and 34 completed a university degree, while among men it is 37.6%. In countries like Norway, women already represent 60% of students in higher education. In the United Kingdom, women have gone from making up 31% of university graduates in 1970 to 58% in 2022. "As a university education is linked to higher income, cultural capital, and social mobility, this gap is likely to have an impact on an increasingly competitive labor market," the European study notes.

Nevertheless, Carbonell admits that men continue to dominate the so-called STEM professions—which encompass fields related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—with higher salaries; While women are overrepresented in HEAL jobs—which include health, education, arts, and communications—with lower salaries, but with rising demand for the future. In Spain, 70% of medical students are already women.

But what relationship does this context have with the rise of anti-feminist discourse among young people? The analyst points out that this "economic decline" has disrupted the idea of traditional masculinity linked to being the "breadwinner" of the home: "Before, a man with a salary could support an entire family, and now he can't even rent a shared room." This explains why more young men affected by precarious employment may be attracted to the nostalgic discourse of the far right. Women, on the other hand, when they compare themselves with their mothers or grandmothers, can more clearly observe improvements in areas such as education and work, says Carbonell. "Blaming feminism offers a clear and concrete target, while the real causes—structural economic changes—are more complex and difficult to address," the study adds.

Among the solutions to reverse this trend, Carbonell proposes economic responses such as massive investment in affordable housing, promoting vocational training, or creating a "universal inheritance" for young people through progressive taxes on large fortunes. On the other hand, he emphasizes the importance of working on "positive masculinities"—for example, with groups where they can open up and discuss their frustrations—and encouraging men to work in feminized sectors such as health care or education.