POLLING which shows four in 10 people in the UK believe women’s equality has gone too far is “completely predictable” and a “sign of male privilege”, an expert has claimed.
A major study by Ipsos UK and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London – which involved surveys conducted across 30 countries including Spain, Australia, Ireland and Japan – has shown just over half of men felt women’s equality has gone so far that men are being discriminated against, while a third of women felt this way.
A greater proportion of adults in Britain (42%) agreed with the statement, “We have gone so far in promoting women’s equality that we are discriminating against men”, than countries including Canada (40%), the US (39%) and Germany (33%).
Kallia Manoussaki, a psychology lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland, said the findings were no surprise.
She said because women have been heard “more than ever” over the past 10 years, there is now a reaction occurring, which she added was a sign of “men’s privilege”.
She told The National: “It is completely predictable. It does not surprise me.
“There is no better evidence of privilege than feeling as if your rights have been taken when the person who is not privileged [women] has tried to take some human rights in order to equalise the situation.
“This is evidence of a couple of things – first of all it is evidence that generally people’s attitudes have gone back to being conservative. It’s almost like ‘we’ve done enough now, we’ve been PC, it’s too much’. That kind of pendulum swing.
“For me it’s also evidence of men’s privilege.
“We’re seeing a reaction to a group, which is half of humanity, which is trying to have their voice heard a little bit and we’ve had our voice heard in the last decade more than ever and it is only natural that that would bring a reaction. “
Asked about why more people in UK appeared to feel this way about women’s equality than in many other countries, Manoussaki said she felt since Brexit some areas of British culture had become “unhinged”, with more people feeling entitled and defensive.
“Something about the British culture lately, particularly since Brexit, has become slightly unhinged,” she said.
“There’s been a shift and I think that shift brought with it more conservative values and I think from a psychological point of view confronting privilege is very painful, especially for the privileged.
“It surprised me Britain was worse than other places, I thought the US would be just as bad. There’s some sort of kickback I think. I think the UK took great strides in listening to the voice of women and we’re getting a bit of a reaction now, because the UK has maybe done more than other countries.”
Elsewhere in the study, across all countries, it was found young men were more likely than older age groups to feel women’s equality discriminates against men.
Some 57% of Gen Z adults – aged 18 to 29 – felt this way compared with 44% of so-called Baby Boomers (aged 60-80).
Among women, Millennials – aged 30-45 – were most likely to feel this way (39%), with Baby Boomers least likely to (29%).
While the research also suggested around half (51%) of people perceived there to be tension between men and women in their country, younger people were more likely to feel this was the case.
Cat Murphy, executive director at anti-sexism organisation Engender, said the fact more young men feel women’s equality is causing men to be discriminated against was a sign of the effect of right-wing influencers but also of deepening inequalities across society.
“It’s really concerning that these views seem to be on the increase, particularly among young men,” said Murphy.
“It’s quite sad because it’s not a fair representation of the situation. I think a lot of the frustrations that young men feel about falling living standards overall across the population, the increasingly deep inequality in terms of wealth we’re seeing where huge swathes of wealth and power is being held among an ever-decreasing number of people, I think that’s one of the major drivers of this.
“I also think we’re seeing the corrosive effect of some of these misogynistic right-wing influencers who are making anti-feminist arguments.
“I think it’s very sad young men feel this way and it’s something we need to address, but the answer is not in less equality and rights for women. The evidence does not demonstrate that women are benefitting over men.”
Manoussaki said young men were taking some conversations around raising awareness of women’s equality personally, whereas older men do not feel quite so intensely about these issues.
“Older men have been there before, they have lived their life, they have seen it all and they don’t take it personally. Younger people have intense feelings about these issues that older men do not have,” she said.
“The younger people right now are acting defensively, they take it as a personal slight.
“We didn’t talk about sexual violence before. It existed, it always has, and it’s the only crime around the world that has showed a steady increase with no signs of calming down. So over the last few years we’ve talked about it openly, we say it out loud, and when we say it in classrooms and in forums, I think boys think we’re talking about them personally.”
