Polarised ideological views between men and women could be the defining issue of the next generation

The warning comes due to South Korea’s birth rate - which is the lowest in the world. In the 1960s, Korean women were having on average six babies in their lifetime. Now the birth rate is 0.72 per person, and continuing to plummet. 

Korea’s population is expected to halve within the next 80 years. This is partly driven by global societal changes, but also a widening gap in political and ideological views between Gen Z men and women. 

While females are becoming significantly more progressive and left wing, young males are getting more conservative. The views of the right-wing Korean men are putting women off - they don’t want to have to quit work and shoulder all the childcare. And this is not only happening in South Korea, but across the globe.

John Burn-Murdoch, the Financial Times’ chief data reporter, has written a fascinating article on this subject, in which he shows younger Americans are more conservative about gender roles than those over 65. They think that women should stay at home and raise a family, as opposed to work.

This divergence in beliefs is very unusual. Previous generations tend to have the same ideological views, be it millennials or baby boomers. Experts believe that this has been partly ignited by the wave of feminism following the Me Too movement.

Women have become more vocal and progressive about their views, and this has led men to feel threatened. Dr Alice Evans, who is writing a book called The Great Gender Divergence, told the Times: “Many young women are choosing to stay single, so it’s also harder for young guys to attract girlfriends. Both of these things, which men really care about, have become so much harder and that is triggering resentment.”

In the West, in particular, the influence of Andrew Tate cannot be underestimated. While Britain appears to be less polarised than other nations, young boys are still growing up with deeply sexist views. During a discussion on equal pay, an eight-year-old boy told his class: “Men are the superior. We’re better, we’re stronger, we’re smarter than women. That’s just the way it is.”

The teacher told NationalWorld that no matter what questions she asked or what counterpoints she gave, she could not shake his world view”. In a call to ChildLine, one girl, 13, said: “Some children have started turning to charities for help. 

While one girl, 13, said in a phone call to Childline: “All the boys in my class are so influenced by [Andrew Tate]. They’ve started picking on me and some of my friends because we are girls wanting to become things that ‘aren’t for women’. It’s made me feel like I’ll never get into my chosen field considering people like them will be in the future generation. I hate it so much but I know I can’t do anything to stop it.”

Worryingly, it appears these views tend to entrench as youngsters get older. Experts are concerned this could have significant societal impacts. In South Korea, the birth rate issue has been described as a national emergency. This could be a worrying petri dish for the rest of the globe. 

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.