Across Europe, young men and women are drifting apart politically: while young women increasingly embrace progressive values, young men show a growing inclination towards conservative and far-right positions. Yet the mechanisms driving this gap remain underexplored. This project seeks to uncover the cultural mechanisms behind the growing youth gender divide by examining the gendered effects of educational interventions as expressions of political socialisation. We employ a field experiment in Spanish secondary schools to identify how different framings of gender equality in classroom workshops shape adolescents’ attitudes. Participants are randomly assigned to sessions led by either male or female facilitators and exposed to two types of messages: a traditional feminist frame emphasising male responsibility, and a reformulated equality frame highlighting how patriarchal norms also constrain men’s emotional well-being and social freedom. Comparing these conditions allows us to test whether reframing equality as a shared benefit mitigates perceived status threat, a key factor linked to radical-right support.
