Gen Z and the widening gender divide

Gender will be an important chapter in the story of Generation-Z.

From romance to the workplace, the divisions could not be starker. Anecdotal evidence of the divide is common; Gen-Z women entered the workforce in this time of rising gender equity and gender justice, despite the backsliding of rights in the West, and being better educated, better paid, and with more hard power than their male counterparts for the first time in history.

Gen-Z men, on the other hand, are disaffected, more close-minded and insular as they struggle to make intimate connections beyond the romantic, if they have any success in romance at all, while apathetic and angry at the world left for them, prospects riven from family, career, to owning their own home.

I’m not one of these men, but I can identify that I did focus on school, expecting to cruise to a career rather than building up professional bona fides, and believing (knowing) that romance and fatherhood come along in their own time. Compare that to my twin sister, who earns three times more than me, is more known in her field than I’m known in mine, and, in a professional development sense, is further down the track than I am.

Amid climate change and everything periling the world, these facts of being overtaken by women make some Gen-Z men, many men overall, uncomfortable. Scared, even. But given history, power has always swung, and if en masse it swings to women rather than men, what do we really lose?

Or is it that men know how they’ve treated women, and now that the shoe is on the other foot…?

I’m just asking questions. Part of the difficulty of Gen-Z is the internet, the death of third spaces and the rise of online spaces that are increasingly polarised. Look no further than the flight of users from X (formerly Twitter) to Bluesky or the creation of apps like Truth Social and Telegram, increasingly not just to reach and befriend new audiences, but to quantify everyone into neat little groups and continue disseminating information that may or may not be true or harmful despite (poor) attempts at regulation and content moderation.

Looking at gender through this lens tells us it was the divisions that sowed the seeds of discontent, when men could have accepted a greater role in the home and managing childcare. Millennials and many Gen-X (thanks mom and dad) did a pretty good job embracing this shift. In my life, boys were turned into men alongside girls turned into women, in school, sports, friendship, and our personal lives.

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