After a decade of global feminist mobilizations, a rising far right and misogynist social media profiles, research suggests that young men and women increasingly diverge in their gender equality attitudes. What drives increasing gender differences in gender equality attitudes among the young? To address this question, we conducted gender-separated and gender-mixed focus groups with 18-29-year-olds with different political party affiliations in Germany, Greece, Poland, Spain and Sweden. We asked about participants’ views on topics including feminism, gender equality in general, in the workplace, in politics and in parenting, as well as abortion, consent, and sexual harassment. First results suggest that young women across political party affiliations articulate similarly progressive views in favor of feminism. Among young men, different profiles emerge among participants with different political party affiliations: Some liberal and right-wing men express status grievances related to career opportunities and their standing in the family or household. Left-leaning men engage less with the topic. We further discuss cross-country differences. The paper contributes qualitative evidence on explanations for potentially growing gender differences between young men and women today.
