A New Global Gender Divide Is Emerging For The First Time Ever

For all the research and articles you might have read about the habits and beliefs from one generation to the next, one assumption has remained surprisingly unquestioned: both men and women from any particular generation share a similar mindset. What separates Boomers from Millennials may be extreme but that shift applies relatively equally to anyone regardless of gender.

An op-ed piece in the FT suggested that Gen Z (a term generally referring to those currently under the age of 26) may be two generations, not one. The article features some surprising data points about the diverging beliefs of men and women across the globe and suggests some reasons for the divide:

The #MeToo movement was the key trigger, giving rise to fiercely feminist values ... That spark found especially dry tinder in South Korea ... but it serves as a warning to other countries of what can happen when young men and women part ways. Its society is riven in two. Its marriage rate has plummeted, and birth rate has fallen precipitously ... the lowest of any country in the world.

In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across liberal and conservative world views, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. That gap took just six years to open up.

If this shift continues, there are dangerous implications for everything from workplace collaborations to relationships and families of the future. For those who are part of this generation or watching it emerge, the question worth sitting with is whether this is likely to explode into a full blown gender divide and crisis at some point.