Recent evidence indicates a reversal of the traditional gender voting gap, where women historically leaned more conservative than men, into a modern gender voting gap marked by young women’s increasing support for left-wing policies and parties. Building on this emerging research, the present study investigates gender and age differences in voting intentions, ideological orientation, and issue positions on LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and climate change across thirteen countries. Drawing on original cross-national data collected in 2024, I find that gender gaps are most pronounced among young people and tend to narrow, and in some cases reverse, with age. Younger women are substantially more progressive on LGBTQ+ support and more left leaning in their ideological self-placement than their male peers. Patterns in voting intentions reveal a more nuanced picture: in some countries (Germany, Austria and the Netherlands), a clear gap emerges, with young women being much less likely to vote for a radical right party than young men. In other countries (United Kingdom, Italy and Poland), there is a general trend against voting for radical right parties among both young women and men. Overall, the findings indicate that the modern gender gap is primarily driven by shifts among young women toward the left, rather than by changes among young men. These results have important implications for understanding the evolving dynamics of electoral politics and the growing gender polarization in contemporary democracies.
