Donald Trump and Nigel Farage. Image: Shealah Craighead
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Donald Trump’s misogyny could embolden British culture warriors, experts have warned.
Gender was inescapable during the 2024 presidential election campaign. Kamala Harris based her pitch on reproductive freedom: Vote for Trump, she told female voters, and you may lose the right to get an abortion. Trump, meanwhile, courted young men. He appeared on macho podcasts like Joe Rogan (81% male listenership), attended UFC matches, and pledged to protect women “whether they like it or not”.
The former reality star – who has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 26 women – collected endorsements and vast campaign donations from tech bros such as Elon Musk. His vice-presidential pick has previously decried the “misery” of professional women who opt not to have children.
The result? Harris secured 53% of female voters to Trump’s 46%, fewer female voters than Biden secured in 2020.
But Donald Trump picked up male voters in swathes. The now-president-elect attracted 55% of male voters, and made dramatic inroads with male groups that typically lean Democrat.
Latino men supported Biden at a rate of 57% but this week 54% voted for Trump. Roughly 20% of Black men voted Republican, a figure that has doubled in ten years.
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The election result cannot be reduced to just gender, says Pippa Catterall, professor of history and policy at the University of Westminster – incumbents around the world have suffered defeats this year, and polling suggests that the economy and immigration were key issues at the ballot box.
But Trump doubtless tapped into a deeply gendered resentment, she added.
“The idea that ‘wokery has gone too far, that you need a restoration of the nuclear family’ – they played on this, and it seemed to appeal,” Catterall said.
“His campaign successfully tapped into social media to narrowcast to groups who are receptive to this message.”
This brand of social conservatism clearly resonates with some women, too. White women still overwhelmingly voted for the Republican candidate – as they have done in every election over the last 72 years, except for in 1964 and 1996
“The fact that Trump is a misogynist, a sexual predator, quite possibly, a rapist, doesn’t necessarily stop people voting for him on the ticket,” Catterall said.
“I think [voters] draw a distinction between what they see as the man and what they see as the values of his political project. And they see it as confronting a changing social order on their behalf, of restating what means to be American.”
“There’s a nostalgia to it. Obviously, you can’t go back to the 1950s – and it wasn’t anything as nice as these people would like to think. It wasn’t like all women stayed at home and made cupcakes. But the gendered nostalgia is there.”
These ideas are not confined to America – British young men are increasingly leaning right. According to Gallup poll data, young women in the UK are roughly 25% more liberal than men the same age.
Young men are likely to resist immigration, resent changing social norms, and vote for conservative candidates. Young women, on the other hand, are far more likely to lean left and support progressive policy.
Researcher Alice Evans has termed this “the great gender divergence.” It’s partially attributable to economic decline: Brits born into areas with high unemployment are more likely to say, “Husband should earn, wife stay at home”, partly due to an “unmet need for status”.
Where there is economic immobility, ‘zero-sum’ mentalities become common. Zero sum is the idea that whatever is gained by one side in a dispute is lost by the other.
In short, some men are more likely to feel as though women are benefitting at their expense, Evans explains.
“Under a ‘zero-sum’ mentality, resentful hostility makes sense. Economic stagnation and intense competition foster jealousy,” she said. These feelings don’t represent reality: data shows that women are far more likely to be caught in the poverty trap. But the resentment grows nonetheless.
The divide is emphasised by celebrities like Andrew Tate, a toxic online commentator and self-described “sexist” who blames radical feminism for the ills of the modern world.
It’s bleeding down: a fifth of young British men who have heard of Andrew Tate have a “positive” view of him, compared to 7% of women.
Two-thirds (68%) of women aged 16 to 29 say that it is harder to be a woman than a man, Kings College London and Global Institute for Women’s Leadership researchers revealed this year, compared to just over a third (35%) of men the same age.
How this plays out in UK politics remains to be seen. Only 24% of British men wanted Trump to win the election, YouGov polling shows, and 12% of women.
But Donald Trump’s victory will likely embolden UK right-wing politicians to lean into sexist culture war tropes.
“The UK and the USA are different of course,” Catterall said. “But the right appeal more to men than women – in the UK too… politicians here will be looking at the Trump playbook.”
There is a rise in ‘anti-gender’ and right-wing political movements globally, Dr Rishita Nandagiri, lecturer in global health and social medicine said, in countries like Poland, Chile and Germany.
Having Donald Trump as US president could “supercharge these movements”, she said.
“This could have a catastrophic impact on pregnant people’s health – not only abortion seekers – and all reproduction-related healthcare in countries around the world.”
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