25/09/2026
Social media has become a major arena for debates over masculinity, feminism and gender equality, and recent research suggests that these online environments may be contributing to a growing perception of division between young men and women. Ipsos and Kingโs College London found that younger men and women show increasingly different attitudes on issues including feminism, masculinity and gender equality, while researchers have pointed to social media as a possible factor in amplifying this divide. Social media is also a dominant source of news for Gen Z, with 70% of young women and 62% of young men in a 30-country Ipsos survey identifying it as a main source of news. However, the evidence does not establish that social media directly causes men and women to hate each other. In fact, a 2025 UK Ipsos study found that 55% of the public believed young men and women have more in common than divides them. The bigger concern may therefore be that social media amplifies conflict, outrage and perceptions of division, rather than creating universal hatred between the sexes.
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Sources: Ipsos & Kingโs College London, Progress and Polarisation: Global Attitudes Toward Gender Equality; Ipsos, Young Men and Women Divides, 2025; Ipsos Gen Z media-consumption data.
