A fissure between men and women is reshaping British politics

[IwantToRetire]

Among UK voters, gender is emerging as a new dividing line across political views and social attitudes – suggesting Britons are becoming more like Americans.
From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/01/21/a-fissure-between-men-and-women-reshaping-british-politics/
Also in full at https://archive.is/z5qZd

Nost sure if this is the right link, but article says it is based on NatCen - maybe this? https://natcen.ac.uk/publications/demographic-divides-what-drives-attitudes-uk-and-us

Thanks for your thoughtful post.

For most men and women I agree, it is (still) all a big abstract and not such a big deal. A bit more roll-your-eyesy than civil rightsy.

I was like this until JKR came out with her tweets and essay, and that was the point at which I thought - but hang on! She's one of the good ones, smart, a lefty who gives her own money away. So I started looking in to the issue.

Now, I - and most men and women - do not make my living as a political/social commentator. When I was working, I was expected to keep up with trends that affected my job performance. So why did so many of these commentators - with so many resources to call on to do their research - not 'get' GC arguments until 20-bloody-26? And why, instead, did they go full-on GI.

Early on in my personal journey (I hate that phrase, btw), I twigged that GI had all the hallmarks of a men's rights movement, then found that a lot of TERFs had come to the same conclusion.

I agree that there isn't anything new about these statistics. I would query the 'be kind ' narrative for the young women turning to the Greens. It seems to me there is a moral righteousness there that is a cover for behaviour that's anything but kind. The left gives them power of a sort. Power to denounce and shame, to call middle aged women(who they will never identify with or actually become) bigots and racists. To earn the praise of being fearless warriors for the cause.
The thing is this exaggeration of a fissure is being put forward by the right to provoke a backlash against women's rights and the dangers of the feminization of the West.

I'm a Right voter, and even I can see the cover being given to what's been deemed the Woke Right..everything is the fault of migrants, rising hostility to Jews, zero sum on ethno-nationalism. They're carrying on from a decade of cultural dominance and crush from the left, starting with the Great Awokening, anti-Trumpism, lockdowns/Floyd/BLM/cancel culture re trans politics.
Right now, young men are very strongly lining up behind Farage (and Trump), young women are feeling triggered enough to go Team Polanski.
Despite our Zack being TWAW and the Boob Whisperer Supreme, a decade of the Great Awokening has radicalised them left taking BeKind and DontJudge to while new levels of putting themselves last, because this has been their only programming since high school, and they see Farage Jenrick Trump Vance Musk Milei Fuentes Rogan etc as literally the Devil.
What this is doing to the relations between young men and women, I hate to think

Sure, but all polling on this topic in particular shows that women are more likely to support it than men.

I know people like the idea that it is men imposing this stuff but all the research I've seen from any source says the same. Women are the main supporters of gender ideology. And my experience is they are the main enforcers as well, especially institutionally.

Yes, I think this is maybe under-recognised. It's much more comfortable to think women are just too kind for their own good.

But there is a certain number who retain the middle school desire for social dominance and seem to really enjoy power over others. And all the better if they can do it while feeling self-righteous about it.

People like that won't open their eyes when they see what GI really is, because for them it is a vehicle to assert power.

Coming to the conclusion that the ideology capital letters TRA may become discredited, but a lower level of virtue-led social control will remain, small letters tra, as a form of intra-institutional gate-keeping.
It's just too good a free pass for people to intentionally or not conflate #BeKind with being cruel, and #Don'tJudge with slating individuals.

The witch-hunting type seems to be a human perennial.
When belief in witches is out of fashion, they find a different sort of "witch" to target, that's all .

Nice graph; what was the question?

Do we know what Farage actually says about women’s rights in the face of trans activism?

Maybe the men voting Reform don’t even know that Labour, the Greens and the Liberal Democrat’s are largely tras. They may simply not be interested but be thinking more about immigration and Brittania rules the waves and ‘will be great again’ etc

If you look as well, there is a difference but it's fairly moderate. Age seems to be a much bigger difference. Yes young men are more likely to vote reform than young women are. But young men are more likely to vote Green than they are reform. "Young men are twice as likely to support reform than women" sounds dramatic but hides the fact that its still only 14% which is a small percentage.

I think it's worth looking at voting trends etc and also whether certain groups feel disenfranchised is an important issue. But it's possible for it to become a self fulfilling prophecy "women vote left" is easy to spin on a way to make voting left seem non masculine which can influence voting patterns. Likewise it's easy for "why are so many men voting for reform" to turn into a discussion about toxic masculinity which isn't the right approach.
As far as looking at why some groups feel disenfranchised (another poster said young men feel demonised by feminism etc). That's important to think about but doing it through the lens of which party groups are voting for is a very blunt tool.

If you look as well, there is a difference but it's fairly moderate. Age seems to be a much bigger difference. Yes young men are more likely to vote reform than young women are. But young men are more likely to vote Green than they are reform. "Young men are twice as likely to support reform than women" sounds dramatic but hides the fact that its still only 14% which is a small percentage.

I think it's worth looking at voting trends etc and also whether certain groups feel disenfranchised is an important issue. But it's possible for it to become a self fulfilling prophecy "women vote left" is easy to spin on a way to make voting left seem non masculine which can influence voting patterns. Likewise it's easy for "why are so many men voting for reform" to turn into a discussion about toxic masculinity which isn't the right approach.
As far as looking at why some groups feel disenfranchised (another poster said young men feel demonised by feminism etc). That's important to think about but doing it through the lens of which party groups are voting for is a very blunt tool.

Young men are still more likely to vote Green than they are to vote reform though. And over twice as likely to vote for left leaning parties (greens and labour) than to vote for right leaning parties (reform and consercatives). The preference for women to vote left is even more pronounced. But there isn't this great gap between the sexes.as you suggest or a very strong line up behind Farage.
I don't think it has that much to do with trans issues. The political lines in theUK are different to America and Farage has never made a big thing about trans issues really. In fact there's been more discussion in the Conservatives.

I think you may be very surprised. All the Zoomer males I've spoken to, Polanski gives them the maximum ick, and their views on Starmer are unrepeatable here, lol, there may be a swing certainly to being open to voting for Farage.
They're being told for several years now that they're inherently an issue just for being male, from the Gillette campaign to Adolescence.
I don't think if I was a young man again, I'd warm to the left being so hostile to me.
Zoomer women are lost to the worst aspects of the IDentarian left, yes, even to a man like Polanski.
The more interesting cohort is Gen X women, I'm speaking to a lot who've had it with the main parties, and very open to the pitch from Farage.

Elections are traditionally regarded as a way to register which party you want to sit in the house of commons. Not what commercials you get shown. So I think Gillette is a bit of a reach. That's the danger in tying in dissatisfaction with social trends with support for political parties.

Its possible I'm a bit older than you but I had (male) relatives I was fond of who served in the military, some of whom were mentally and physically injured as a result. I certainly don't think all men are useless. But I also find much more genuine contempt for their sacrifices coming from the likes of Trump and Vance than the left wing or feminism. There's a difference between criticism of the worst excesses of male behaviour and the deep seated rage at anyone more masculine than them that seeps out of Trump/Vance/Musk.

But thats just me and of course, maybe if the worst thing ever to happen to someone is seeing a commercial they didn't like then that would influence their reactions. But then maybe those people should sit down and shut the fuck up when talking about the sacrifices made by soldiers OR the problems faced by women. (Not you I'm referring to).

Even as a right voter, you won't see me defend Trump's disgraceful comments on the military. And yes, the Gillette advert furore means nothing to anyone under 25, lol.
IMHO what's way more relevant is young white British working class/poor males in schools getting the worst outcomes, and the relentless narrative to tar young males with the misogyny label, the "Adolescence" cohort.

Adolescence was the brainchild of men though.

You find yourself in a bind where you either ignore the issues faced by young white working class men. In which case they feel ignored. Or you discuss the issues they face. In which case you look like you are targeting them as a problem. For example Male suicide rates are too high. It's very hard to talk about that without also discussing pressures on men not to talk about their feelings. Which then becomes "woke" trying to feminise men. No, on the whole the people asking men to talk about mental health issues don't want to feminise them. They just don't want them to kill themselves.

And there are men who have taken on the challenge of trying to reach out to young men/discuss ways forward. Like Jack Thorne on bullying and online culture, Prince William on mental health (he's privileged but he lost his mother very young), Michael sheen on homelessness. I have no idea if they are the best approaches. But these attempts are still portrayed as "woke attacks by feminists" by people who have not intention of themselves making anything better.

Lots of boys and young men have quite a bit of anger in them. I should know...
My point which as you confirm is very complex and multi faceted, is that as a group, white British working class/poor boys are only getting one prize in society, and that's the wooden spoon.
The solutions defy easy analysis.
All I'm saying is that in the dozens and dozens of Zoomer males I speak to, a lot are very Farage adjacent, feeling marginalized, and very distant from the left.
They genuinely hate Starmer, think Davey is a d**k, and Polanski is way too weird and, as my wife calls him, milky milky.
Attitudes to Trump and Musk are more mixed.
If 16-24 come out to vote in large numbers, I can see a large cohort of Zoomer males (and Gen X women) going with Farage.

young white British working class/poor males in schools getting the worst outcomes

the outcomes are worse, at that point, because of their class, their parents and the system. The 'white' is only a descriptor. People keep trying to spin it to be about colour but isn't if you read the research.

the relentless narrative to tar young males with the misogyny label, the "Adolescence" cohort.

What is your answer?
Girls are expected to stay alert to their surroundings, constantly read situations and people and consider the risk or things going wrong as they go about their lives - especially at night or in isolated places. When there are near misses or things do go wrong, they are the ones who bear the consequences: injury, trauma, death, and often shame. They are not even guaranteed male free spaces to process that trauma without a fight. Education and self-protection is not an accusation. It's unfortunate necessity in a world where there is often no warnings or visible markers to say which men and young boys are safe to be around and which are not.

I can't say I've spoken to a lot of men young and old but the ones I have spoken too are feeling very left out and victimised.

The trend that they're picking up on (rightly or wrongly, who knows!) is that DEI includes everyone but them. They see others getting preferential treatment just because they're not white, they feel like they're being blamed for every trouble in the world because they're male.

Despite the prevailing ideology, most youngsters still want what they always wanted, a job, a wife/partner, children, a house, a future and right now a lot of them are feeling like that's not going to be possible and they don't have a Plan B.

Sure, working class/poor boys born in Britain to British parents.
It isn't Nigerian or Indian boys, is it?
Adolescence? Sure, I can just about accept the premise of the show, but when the solution is to strip the show across schools while having no answer why Rudabukana was caught with a knife ten times in public and no action taken against him or his parents, and in addition to Adolescence all Starmer can witter on about is a ban on pointy knives, I'm speechless.
Btw, how does Adolescence go down in Brighton schools where we've traditionally taught boys and men not to invade women's spaces, yet in these schools the girls can't nt escape the gaze of boys?
How does this mesh with Adolescence? How are you boys meant to filter out the film telling them to respect girls with the school managing disrespect from unavoidable gazes?

The research will set you free @1984Now

That sounds a bit cryptic, are you saying I'm wrong?
It wouldn't be the first time, lol.

There is a lot of easily accessible information on the subject read it/ ask Chat GPT if you statement about working white boys is true in the way you appear to think it is.

They're doing just fine, are they? I've read many articles that says white British boys, mainly working class/poor households are doing particularly badly in school.
From both left and right sources and blogs.
You're telling me these sources are wrong, and that this cohort are succeeding in school as well as young girls are doing, plus Nigerians, HK Chinese, Europeans, middle class, etc etc?

Is that because of the things you are most upset about though? Or are you latching your own grievances onto the real problems of a seperate group of people in order to give your personal bugbears legitimacy and cast yourself as a spokeseperson? An act of force teaming the wokiest of woke TRAs would be proud of.