Winning over young men

However, the statistics reveal an interesting, more complex trend. In January, a Financial Times article pointed to evidence that while the young women of Gen-Z are, as expected, more left than previous generations, the young men are defying expectations by turning to the centre or even right.

Other surveys have confirmed this trend. American surveys by Survey Center on American Life, Newsweek and Glocalities report a split between young men and women. An analysis of global data by The Economist also shows a gender split but finds that the difference in Australia is less than some other countries.

In Australia, Dr Intifar Chowdhury, a lecturer in government from Flinders University, analysed Australian Election Study (AES) data and concluded:

However, while Gen Z has more men than women on the right, it has less right-leaning men than any other generation – so it would be wrong to say our young men are rushing to the right, like in South Korea or Germany.

A tiny ray of sunshine?

There are other ways of looking at this data. We've used the same AES data set but rather than placing respondents on a left-right spectrum, we have focussed specifically on survey questions about attitude towards the Liberal Party.

And that revealed a small glimmer of hope for the Libs.

Young men, on the cusp of adulthood, are far more favourable to the Liberal Party than most other age groups – and their political leanings differ strongly from their female cohort. I am reminded of the audience in many of Jordan Peterson's talks here in Australia – who could forget all those eager young male faces looking for acceptance and enlightenment?

Our analysis shows young (18-22yo) men are about equally divided on their attitude towards the Liberal Party – 42% dislike the party to some extent and 39% like it to varying degrees. Such indifference may not seem like cause for celebration, but it is significantly more positive than either the female cohort or the next older group of men.