A major new poll conducted by Merlin Strategy for the New Statesman reveals a stark asymmetry in how young Britons view the opposite sex. While 72% of men under 30 hold a positive view of women, only 50% of women in the same age group feel positively toward men. Among women under 25, that figure drops to just 35%, with only 11% expressing a "very positive" view. Women under 30 are three times as likely as men to hold negative views of the opposite gender, and the poll highlights sharp divides on consent, trust, and mutual understanding—with over 40% of young women saying men lack adequate understanding of consent in relationships. These findings, reported across outlets including The Independent, go beyond surface-level sentiment to expose a generational fracture that mainstream discourse has often framed primarily around male radicalization in the "manosphere" while downplaying parallel or stronger shifts among young women toward progressive radicalism and antipathy.[1][2]

This is not an isolated UK phenomenon. Brookings Institution analysis documents young women across Western contexts shifting significantly leftward and embracing "anti-patriarchal" values over the past decade, while young men have remained relatively static or moved rightward, creating widening political polarization by sex. TIME magazine highlights South Korea as an extreme leading indicator: intense gender-political conflict between young men and women has coincided with the world's lowest fertility rate (below 1.0), plummeting marriage rates, and an explicitly anti-feminist political backlash. The piece warns this dynamic—where the sexes increasingly view interests as zero-sum—can suppress family formation as people become reluctant to "sleep with the enemy," a pattern visible in emerging gaps in the US and elsewhere. Ipsos polling further reveals Gen Z men are far more likely than Gen Z women (60% vs 40%) to believe women's equality has gone too far and now discriminates against men, underscoring mutual mistrust.[3][4]

Deeper connections emerge when layering in economic perceptions, education gaps, and technology. Despite young women outperforming men in education and early-career earnings in the UK, the New Statesman data shows them markedly more pessimistic about their futures, the economy, capitalism, and British society itself. Higher-educated (ABC1) young women are the most negative toward men (only 36% positive views) and most drawn to redistribution, environmental radicalism, and left-populist figures. Heavy social media use correlates with heightened negativity. The poll also finds young women far less willing to date across political lines—60% would struggle to date someone disagreeing on major issues like Palestine, Trump, or social justice—creating assortative mating barriers that heterodox observers link to rising singlehood. Institute for Family Studies research shows marriage and parenthood cratering fastest among liberal-leaning young adults, suggesting ideological sorting is already reshaping demographics.[5]

Mainstream outlets frequently misattribute these trends to lingering patriarchy or isolated male extremism (e.g., Andrew Tate), yet the data paints young women as the more "radicalized" cohort on economics, identity, and gender relations—shaped by post-#MeToo awareness, Covid disruptions to the 18-25 "Covid generation," and online echo chambers. The result is a feedback loop: mutual negativity reduces pairing, depresses fertility (already falling across advanced economies), exacerbates male withdrawal and female disillusionment, and polarizes politics around zero-sum gender issues. Without addressing root drivers like economic insecurity for non-college men, mismatched expectations, and algorithmic amplification of grievance, these fractures risk entrenching a low-trust, low-fertility equilibrium that undermines long-term social cohesion, cultural transmission, and prosperity. The New Statesman coverage stands out for confronting the "angry young women" and "femosphere" dynamics head-on rather than defaulting to conventional narratives.