Thus the antifminist ultra -right of the economic « decline » of young boys | Spain
It is one of the star questions of world politics, also from Spanish. Why the ultra -right seduces so many young men? Among the range of responses offered two: social networks and the anti -pattern withdrawal encouraged by the omnipresent « Cultural battle ». He European Policy Centera laboratory of ideas based in Brussels, now offers a complementary response in a report by its analyst Javier CarbonellSpanish researcher specialized in inequalityextreme right and youth. The fuel that drives Vox and the rest of the ultras parties is the educational and economic “decline” of men under 30, especially if it materializes in a delay with respect to women or in a perception of threat of being overcome.
Within the General boom of the young vote to the ultrasthere is a « growing gender gap, » says Carbonell, associated professor at the Parisian University Sciences Po and researcher at Edimburg. According to data from European Election Studies17.2% of men under 25 supported an ultra -rightist party in the European of 2024, almost double that women of those ages (9.5%). In Spain, for each girl in this strip who voted for Vox and Alvise Pérez They did 4.6 boys. The Men from 18 to 28 years are the cohort that declares the most intention to vote, 29.9%, compared to 18.3% of the girls of that age, according to the 40DB APRIL BAROMETER. They are also the ones Come with better eyes to Donald Trump.
One of the most used factors to explain this gap is the massive use of social networks, which amplify the Polarizing contentamong them about gender, to hook users. Another is that it responds to an ideological and cultural reaction of young men against feminism, a connection backed by surveys such as the one carried out in 30 countries by the Institute Ipsos and the King’s Colleguewhich revealed that 57% of the men of the Z generation believed that their country had « too far » in the promotion of gender equality.
Cultural and technological explanations are indispensable but « incomplete », writes Carbonell, deputy director of the Ideas Laboratory FUTURE POLY LABwhich believes that another more material is necessary. « In recent decades, young men have experienced a real decline in income, wealth, employment, purchasing power, university education and mental health, » the report collects, which is entitled From supplier to precarious: how the economic decline of young men feed antifminism.
Although this « decline », concentrated in the « working class », is derived from « structural » changes such as the increase in automation, the ultra -right has managed to « capitalize on the frustration » of young men blaming without foundation to feminism, adds Carbonell, coordinator of the collective essay Inequality in Spain (Rag tongue, 2024).
Education and income
Ultra success among young people is not understood, according to Carbonell, without some data that show not only difficulties of children equally shared by girls, but some specific arrears. It is a global phenomenon. The best female academic results have begun to move to the stage of incorporation into the labor market, as highlighted in September 2024 Financial Times eloquently titled: « Young women are beginning to leave men behind. » In the same line points Lost guysa study published last month by the For Social Justice Centerbased in London.
Carbonell emphasizes that in Western societies, including Spanish, multiple inequalities persist that favor men, also to those who are young today, which for example will not suffer the « penalty » work by maternity. But that is something that many post -adolescents and twenty -year -old « do not see, » explains the researcher to El País. « At these ages they hear that they are privileged, but they often live the experience of being left behind with the girls, » he adds.
The author puts the focus on two lands. The first is education. In the EU, 48.8% of women and 37.6% of men between 25 and 34 years, with data from data, with data from Eurostat of 2023. In Spain, the contrast is between 58% female and 46.1% male. The figure agrees with the one offered by the INE For the higher graduates between 25 and 29 years: 57.2% them, 43.3% them. And adds to the INE data of Early educational abandonmentthe percentage between 18 and 24 years that leaves the studies without a Baccalaureate or FP title: 15.8% male abandonment against 10% female in 2024. Another gap opens in the percentages that attempt and achieve a degree of Middle -grade FP (72.9% they, 62.8% them) or higher (81.1% they, 73.1% them), with data of 2024.
The educational gaps are not new. In the case of young people with superior degree in Spain, it has existed for more than 30 years. But then there were minor: 21.6% them compared to 19.5% in 1992. With some ups and downs, the trend is growing, as well as European scale. The key is that this difference in classrooms already has a visible reflection in your pocket. By force of incorporating more women year after year than men with high preparation, the labor market has been adapting. Although discriminations persist, young women already translate their greatest training into a greater capacity to compete in revenue with them. Or even to overcome them.
Revenue is the other carbonell attention object. In the EU, among young people under 25, the gender wage gap is being reduced and in some cases it has been invested. The most marked differences in favor of women, with the Income Data per Escotat’s hour of 2023, are in Belgium (8.3% more for women) or France (7.2%), “Pioneer countries of a trend that occurs throughout Western Europe,” explains the researcher to this newspaper. In Spain, the difference is still slightly favorable to men (0.4%), despite their worst formation in general. But it is disappearing. In 2013 it was favorable to men by 7.3 points, and now only for 0.4. « The trend points to an investment in favor of women, in line with Belgium, France, Finland or Greece, » he adds. The salary gap in favor of men is still widespread between 25 and 34 years, but its trend is also decreasing. In Spain, in ten years, it has dropped from 9.9% to 2.9%.
Political use
The European Policy Center analyst puts this data in contrast to the role of family “supplier” that has traditionally been assigned to man, a role that marries badly with his loss of land or even with his comparative delay. That’s where the « frustration » of young people arises, he explains. And also where the ultra -right appears with solutions? No. identifying a culprit that is not really, but that serves as a scapegoat: feminism. Carbonell sees significant how in the « Digital Lanfera » Misoginia are combined, subculture INCEL (of involuntary celibate men) and speeches on the « besieged » virility with others who encourage the mirage of a rapid recovery of male economic primacy through « Cryptoinversiones ». Hence the pairing of the world cryptopro With antipheminism, curdled in a digital environment in which ultra -right moves as a fish in the water.
« Presenting ultra success among young people as a cultural response to feminism barley by the algorithms of the networks leaves without placing a piece of the puzzle, which is completed by analyzing the material conditions and how young children are managing them based on their expectations, » Carbonell explains to El País. On the one hand, he points out, although they are « suffering the same problems » of dwelling and emancipation That girls, their « feeling of failure » can be aggravated by an idea of masculinity still « closely linked to a supporting role » that they fear never reach. On the other, « both in the classrooms and in the early stages of the professional career, working -class boys see how they are left behind their classmates or are ready, » adds Carbonell, which emphasizes that this is simultaneous to the persistence of multiple unfavorable inequalities to women in domestic tasks, care or salaries.
« What happens is that male economic privileges derived from inequalities have not yet been experienced by many working -class young people. Meanwhile, they receive a great flow of political messages. From the progressive space, they arrive that they are privileged. From the conservative, their victimism is encouraged, the feminism is blamed and a restoration of the lost status is promised,” adds Carbonell Antiferen of a part of young men is, paradoxically, « symptom of something positive, a social advance of women. »
What to do before the perception of a part of its male peers that this « progress » is a challenge encouraged by unbailed feminism? Carbonell believes that « renewing speech on masculinity » is as essential as insufficient. We must add social measures, but not « specific to young men. » « All youth policies, for men and women, would be positive, for example in housing or job stability, » says the researcher, defender of the « Universal inheritance ». His final message is this: « You have to introduce young men of working class in the analysis of gender inequality and policies to reduce it. »
Neil Datta, director of the European and Reproductive Rights Parliamentary Foruman organization that defends the conquests of feminism, coincides with the diagnosis of Carbonell. Although the networks act as « resonance chamber » of anti -feminist messages, it is « even more worrying » that, in many Western countries, young men are being « lagging behind » their partners in « access to the university, employment rates and income levels. » « A growing number of young women seems to access the middle class, while an increasing number of young men descends to the less favored classes. Although the progressives have not yet recognized this trend – and, therefore, they have not approached it – the extreme right yes, » he concludes.
