Survey shows a widening gender ideological gap in recent years. Why?

If asked to identify the most significant factors that result in a divided society, many would picture race, wealth, or culture: considering the widening gender gaps would not even make it to the list. Demographics can develop gaps in ideology within one society as a result of differing experiences, one of the major contributors to the recent widening gap between men and women being social media and its intentional push of divisive content to young users. Through the continuous and rapid influence of digital cultures and media, easily impressionable children are persuaded to change their perspectives of the world, leading to the exacerbation of affective polarization: the psychological theory of viewing others of different demographics with suspicion, hostility, and prejudice. Ultimately, this notion is key to explaining why some men and women are incentivised to hold the opposite sex as a target to justify extremist and radical values.

Studies indicate that “up to 95% of youth ages thirteen to seventeen” use social media every day (Vogels et al., 2022). Frequently used platforms such as Facebook or Instagram might be considered as harmless for many users at the first glance, but they are the exact ones that are wielding the vulnerability of young people in order to gain profit, traction, and an engaged audience. This can be performed through the use of echo chambers: spaces where a person will only encounter information which they also agree with. Many understand the negative influences that social media has, yet users have the tendency to continue to consume mass media, which includes everything from likes and follows to shared content and targeted advertisements. 

When a new user registers to a platform, they are immediately profiled according to their gender, location, age, and countless other demographic categories, which allow social media platforms to create algorithms in order to provide content that they are most likely to interact with (Micu et al, 2022). Unfortunately, this encourages some content creators to create radicalized and even hateful content, simply because their audience seems to react in a quick and positive way. Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen states that “when you have a system that you know can be hacked with anger, it’s easier to provoke people into anger. And publishers are saying 'Oh, if I do more angry, polarizing, divisive content, I get more money.’ Facebook has set up a system of incentives that is pulling people apart” (Alba & MacFarlane, 2021). 

Not only will these algorithms provide content featuring certain stereotypes of certain genders, they will also heavily promote hateful and disparaging content in order to maximise engagement. An example of this is that if a male user is recognized to be engaging eagerly with fitness content, these algorithms will actively push for more radical ideologies, tailoring the content to funnel users into harmful echo chambers rather than what the user might actually have been looking for. This causes them to be stuck in a loop of potentially harmful ideology. that targets the opposite sex. Social media platforms have done little to discourage this type of disturbing and hateful content; in fact, all they have done is enable it and profit off of the engagement. On top of this, social media platforms have also aggressively profiled users through compulsory, involuntary, and aggressive questions when they first register to a platform, allowing the media to take into account which gender, age, and region a user lives in. This data is then used to profile vulnerable users to get them addicted to extreme content. 

The “manosphere” is an umbrella term that describes online communities that promote harsh anti-feminist ideologies, heavily linked to misogyny, masculinity, and sexism. This concept provides the “false narrative that feminism and gender equality have come at the cost of men’s rights” (UNWomen, 2024) and is a primary example of how digital subcultures can affect young and naive people on social media platforms. Manosphere content creators identify the vulnerabilities of their target audience and provide a radicalized solution, framing any and every criticism that they receive as proof that the algorithm is attempting to silence men. The “manosphere” and other digital subcultures receive engagement through the act of manipulating young people to make them believe harsh ideologies, including that the opposite sex will forever be a threat to the male population. 

Studies reveal that “two-thirds of young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online” (UNWomen, 2024), and spaces like the manosphere ultimately lead towards radical and extremely misogynistic ideologies, which is primarily why it has gained so much traction from young men. But why? Studies state that many “manfluencers” promote the belief that “women don’t like good men because they are “naturally” attracted to “dark-triad” personalities, endorsing excuses for toxic behaviors” (Ging & The Conversation Digital Storytelling Team, 2025) and this thought allows for male content creators to create videos explaining to young boys why having the “bad-boy” personality and mindset will lead to the ability to enter a relationship with a woman. 

Once these boys are involved in subcultures and echo chambers such as the manosphere, the algorithm then rarely exhibits other videos or experiences of other ideologies to these people: enforcing the idea of affective polarisation and the view that men are the superior gender whilst women are inferior. People are gradually more exposed to an increasing amount of hateful and polarizing content, further enforcing the echo chambers where only similar opinions are reinforced and opposite perspectives are fully ignored. This idea can be said the same for women as well, with both sides of the gender being blocked from receiving certain kinds of information, which further creates the gender ideological gap. The manosphere now functions as a sealed community in which platforms coordinate with one another in order to brand a type of masculinity that is inherently opposing the progress of women, setting back further of the gender equality in the status quo. 

With the rise of women’s suffrage and rights in the status quo, the traditional agreement between men and women, such as the stereotype that women stay at home to clean and reproduce whilst men go out to work and generate income, has fully evaporated in most first-world countries. Because women no longer have the need to rely solely on their husbands for support, the traditional male status has also evaporated and is no longer a commodity for most women, and the role of men in society is considered diminished in their perspectives. If this old path of being the provider in society has faded, some men might feel displaced and cause them to gravitate towards the “manosphere” as said before, providing a space that offers condolence and a clear hierarchy where they can regain a sense of power and dominance. 

Additionally, research shows that many ex-manosphere men only joined “as a result of experiencing romantic rejection and frustration within their dating lives as well as grappling with feelings of masculine inadequacy, reinforced by the narratives of ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’ men in the manosphere.” (Forbes, 2024). Because many women no longer feel the need to be dependent on a man to live, many incel men have become clearly upset with the fact that no women needs them in their life, leading to more extremist and harsh ideologies all of which include misogynist and anti-women thoughts.

 It is also important to recognize that this idea is not only relevant to men, but also for women. The 4BMovement, founded originally in South Korea, is an “activist movement and political stance defined by four deliberate refusals: bihon (“no marriage”), bichulsan (“no childbirth”), biyonae (“no dating”), bisekseu (“no sex [with men]”)” (Lee, 2025) has been formed to reject the patriarchal life that women have been expected to cope with. Both of these examples have pushed back the system of gender inequality as both genders seem to desire a radical change but have expressed their concerns using problematic methods. This includes women pursuing higher forms of education, such as the attainment of a Master’s or P.h.D degree in university, which seems to have become the norm for many women in modern society. Studies indicate that “women between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four continue to be more likely than men in the same age group to have a bachelor’s degree”––disregarding race, ethnicity, and nationality (Hurst, 2024). The lack of enrollment in education from men across many different countries is also a reason why both genders have such differing ideologies. A common idea that many women tend to share is cosmopolitanism, “the philosophical view that all individuals are global citizens with responsibilities that transcend national boundaries” (Donnelly, 2021), particularly due to their prioritization in globalism, social justice, and welfare. The recent decline in male university enrollment, now “one million fewer students enrolled in four-year institutions” (Black, 2025) in the United States of America and other first-world countries has led to an overall increase in the gender ideological gap in recent years. Additionally, there is a clear language barrier in terms of how women describe society compared to how men describe society. Personal research conducted on social media have shown that women tend to use terms such as “systemic patriarchy” more frequently, whilst men use vocabulary such as “misandrist culture” and “fairness”, which are phrases that are constantly reinforced in the online manosphere spaces. This separation in parlance is a manifestation of the ever increasing gap in ideology between men and women, especially when discussing serious matters such as social equality and gender politics. 

The widening gap in ideology between men and women is not a result of ordinary demographic shifts in society––but an exasperated side effect to the increasing influence of social media. Through the use of echo chambers and affective polarisation, the promotion of a divided space specifically curated for men or women continuously reinforces distrust and misunderstanding between genders purely for the purpose of maximizing profits. Additionally, due to broader social changes, including the evaporation of gender roles, making the overall communication between genders even more difficult. As both men and women proceed to become more encouraged to support hate, extremist ideas, and polarisation, this ultimately shows how the role of social media is involved in transforming stereotypes and tensions between genders into an endless cycle of radicalization, which in the end, will have severe consequences for society and its cohesion.