The Gender Gap in Political Ideology and What We Can Do About It

The Gender Gap in Political Ideology and What We Can Do About It

A fascinating recent article examines the increasing gender gap in political ideology, not just in the United States but globally:

The gender ideology gap is widening across dozens of countries simultaneously. UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Poland, Brazil, Tunisia. Young women moving left on social issues, young men either stable or drifting right.

William Jacobson remarked: “What I noted just a month after the October 7 massacre continues two years later: ‘What’s really striking is how many of these violent demonstrators and kidnapped poster destroyers are young women; [it] seems like a significant majority.’”

The reasons for this phenomenon, as recently discussed, involve multiple factors, such as biology, psychology, sociology, and history. They go beyond feminist and leftist indoctrination, although this has been an important contributor to the political gender gap. A significant number of young women in the West today have been brainwashed to believe they are victims of a misogynistic patriarchy despite the unparalleled opportunities they have enjoyed in free and wealthy societies. At the same time, due to their anti-Western bias, they have little compassion for the plight of Muslim or other oppressed women around the world.

Woke Western women have “drunk the Kool-Aid” in believing they are equal to men in physical strength and abilities. Yet proofs to the contrary abound. Biological males of average athletic prowess routinely defeat females of extraordinary fitness in women’s sports. Friendly soccer matches between elite women’s teams and average men’s teams have not surprisingly resulted in overwhelming losses for the women.

Jordan Peterson often remarks that one of the greatest differences between the sexes, as revealed in comprehensive and authoritative psychological tests, is that women’s scores are consistently higher than men’s in agreeability and neuroticism. Both of these traits have been essential for survival. Being agreeable facilitates social acceptance and cooperation, necessary for protecting the young, while neuroticism is linked to a heightened alertness and perception of danger. Alternatively, men’s lower neuroticism and higher conflict tolerance have aided their traditional roles as warriors and defenders of the family and community.

Women are naturally more empathetic and sympathetic, which partially explains their support for welfare and other leftist causes. Conversely, men are more individualistic and competitive. I have often marveled at these differences, although I tend to be an outlier, since I wholeheartedly support conservative and libertarian causes and despise socialism.

This, of course, is due to my personal experiences under communism, contrasted with my appreciation of America and its founding philosophy. Despite my unshakeable convictions, however, I struggle with being disagreeable — not out of fear but because I instinctively hate to disappoint or offend other people.

I felt heartbroken when former friends of mine reacted with shock and disgust when they learned of my political beliefs and support for the Trump movement. This did not alter my views, but, nevertheless, saddened me considerably. I have observed with admiration, on the other hand, that my male relatives and friends routinely welcome heated debates and revel in political dueling.

Anti-Western “intersectional” ideologues have made women’s nature work in their favor. On the one hand, women’s natural empathy and conflict avoidance make them susceptible to socialist propaganda. On the other hand, the hard-wired maternal fierceness in protecting one’s offspring has been channeled to champion woke causes in young women not interested in procreation.

Recent discussions by Bret Weinstein and other influencers have highlighted this troubling phenomenon:

For the first time in 300,000 years of human evolution, we removed the cost from the single biggest reward nature ever invented — sex and pair-bonding.

Reliable birth control + abortion = you can now cash the evolutionary lottery ticket without paying the 20-year mortgage of pregnancy, diapers, sleepless nights, and college funds.

Result? An entire generation of 18–35-year-olds walking around with the energy, libido, hormones, and protective instincts that evolution spent millions of years calibrating for child-rearing… but with zero actual children. That energy didn’t disappear. It got redirected.

Heather Heying’s observation is brutal: young women especially began treating ideologies the exact way evolution wired them to treat babies. Climate change, social justice, whatever the cause of the month is — it gets defended with literal mama-bear ferocity, the same neurochemistry that once guarded a toddler from predators now guards an abstract idea from wrong think.

Such tendencies lead to catastrophic demographic and political consequences. The negative birthrate in many Western countries, coupled with young women’s acceptance of woke indoctrination, makes such societies especially vulnerable to a hostile takeover by radical Islam and anti-Western globalism in the form of a “brave new world” dystopia.

What can we do to solve this problem? It is noteworthy that women who have immigrated from communist countries or other oppressive societies cherish the freedoms they enjoy in the United States without embracing wokeness. Similarly, women from conservative and religious families in America tend to preserve their values unless they are swayed by pervasive woke propaganda in public schools and most colleges.

Leftist ideologues have always understood that children are “malleable clay” and have invested considerable effort in controlling the upbringing of future generations. That is why we need to protect our daughters and granddaughters from being molded in the image of rabid “social justice warriors” who detest men and despise traditional mores.

To achieve this, we need to prioritize school choices and emphasize home schooling, microschooling, charter, religious, and private-school options, as well as non-woke college alternatives. Educational resources such as those promoted by PragerU, We The Kids, or The Tuttle Twins provide a much-needed refuge from the aggressive anti-Western narrative that has infiltrated our culture.

We are fortunate to enjoy unsurpassed material abundance and innumerable conveniences. This alleviates the burden of daily chores and provides ample opportunities for professional realization for men and women alike. Conservative women in the United States and comparable societies have proven time and again that they can enjoy both a thriving career and a fulfilling family life.

Margaret Thatcher famously stated:

We support the right of women to choose our own lives for ourselves. If women wish to be lawyers, doctors, engineers, scientists, politicians, we should have the same opportunities as men, more and more we do….

But many women wish to devote themselves mainly to raising a family and running a home. And we should have that choice too. Very few jobs can compare in long-term importance and satisfaction with that of housewife and mother.

For the family is the building block of society. It is a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest. It encompasses the whole of society. It fashions our beliefs. It is the preparation for the rest of our life. And women run it.

Men and women are equal in their innate rights and worth, yet vastly different in their talents, biology, and psychology. These differences are profound and splendidly beautiful, and that splendor should be acknowledged, encouraged, and celebrated.

Nora D. Clinton is a Research Scholar at the Legal Insurrection Foundation. She was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria. She holds a PhD in Classics and has published extensively on ancient documents on stone. In 2020, she authored the popular memoir Quarantine Reflections Across Two Worlds. Nora is a co-founder of two partner charities dedicated to academic cooperation and American values. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband and son.

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