I think those stories were a little overblown. They’re less likely to be feminists but that doesn’t mean they’re more conservative. The IPSOS study is full of loaded questions and nothing to actually nail down what men think of women’s rights. Just feel stuff like, “are you a feminist? Has women’s rights gone too far in your country? Are men asked to do too much?”
What they needed to ask was actual policy questions, “should women receive the same pay as men? Should women be able to hold office and work jobs? Are there jobs that should be off limits to women?”
I’m willing to bet you’ll find more gen Z answering yes yes no, while also believing the feminist movement has gone too far.
“Feminism” is like philosophy in that over time it makes certain wins, and the discussion around that topic gradually sheds the label.
In the same way that ancient philosophers were establishing the disciplines we now call mathematics, geometry, and physics, or early modern philosophers were establishing what we now call economics and political science, and mid-century/postwar philosophers were establishing what is now called computer science and information theory, the history of feminism is notching wins and making them normal:
- In Anglo American law, women were able to own their own property beginning in the early 19th century, starting in the American South (somewhat ironically driven by southern concerns about preserving the institution of slavery).
- Women were allowed to be considered for credit and banking services, equal to men, beginning in the 1970’s.
- Women earned the legal right to equal pay for equal work in the 70’s, even as cultural attitudes in many circles still considered that to be government overreach (even today).
- Marital rape and other forms of domestic violence were outlawed pretty recently. The last state to criminalize marital rape did so in 1993, the same year that Jurassic Park came out in theaters.
- Liberalized divorce rules throughout the 80’s allowed women to leave abusive husbands more easily.
- Most gender segregation in official government institutions were dismantled in the 1980’s and the 1990’s, including the abolition of male-only universities, and laws imposing different legal drinking ages between men and women.
Today, many of us who were alive when these rules were in effect think of them as totally backwards. Nobody is seriously advocating for a return to denying women the right to have their own bank accounts, or giving husbands the right to rape their wives without consequences.
But the cultural understanding of the meaning of feminism rarely considers preserving past wins, even recent wins. People only think of it as fighting for something in the future.
That’s because it’s not the same feminist movement as it was when millennials were gen z’s age.
The last questions are what feminism used to be (what millennials liked). Nowadays, however, feminism is plagued by not-feminist people, that instead of wanting equality want women superiority. That’s the feminism gen z knows about, and the men don’t like it. That’s also the reason they answer “no” to “are you a feminist?” But they support actual feminist policies. The definition of feminism has changed.
EDIT: just for reference: my county (Spain) recently put porn under a passport with limited uses per month. Why did they do that? They claim feminism. Does that sound like feminism to you?
Like most ideologies and movements there are factions. And I do get that most people don’t look close or just don’t care enough to see them. But what you’re describing is militant feminism. And even normal feminists don’t like militant feminists. At the same time, traditionalists attempt to paint the entire movement as militant.
