Feminism is plummeting among young people, and for half of them, it’s political manipulation. (Spain)
https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/02/24/el-feminismo-se-desploma-entre-los-jovenes-y-para-la-mitad-es-manipulacion-politica-cadena-ser/
Posted by mods4mods
39 Comments
TRANSLATION
Only 38% of young people in Spain identify as feminist, the lowest level since 2021; half endorse ideas of romantic love and one in four girls has her phone controlled by her partner
Feminism is declining significantly among young people. Four out of ten identify as feminists. The percentage has fallen from 50% in 2021 to 38% in 2025 — a drop of twelve points, reaching the lowest level since the previous peak. In addition, nearly half of respondents in the Fad Juventud study perceive feminism as a tool for political manipulation.
By age group, those between 15 and 19 years old are the least likely to identify as feminist, with only one in four doing so. In contrast, a majority of people in their thirties identify with that position. There are gender differences: 51% of girls identify as feminist compared to 26% of boys. However, feminism has also declined among young women, dropping six points in just two years. In 2023, the percentage exceeded 57%.
Although young people show broad consensus on equal rights and responsibilities within romantic relationships (one in eight explicitly defend this), strong dynamics of control and gender-based violence persist, with very visible gaps. Thirty-two percent of young women say their partner has gotten angry when they did not immediately respond to messages or calls (17% of boys report the same); 27% say their partner has checked their phone (17% of boys), and 26% say they have been told who they can or cannot talk to (17% of boys).
In the area of sexual violence, one in five young women say they have been forced to have sexual relations when they did not want to, compared to 8% of boys. The impact and consequences of that violence are greater for them: 44% of women report having experienced mental health problems or feelings of guilt or shame, compared to 19% of boys.
In addition, half of young people endorse ideas associated with romantic love: they agree that having a partner implies total devotion to the other person and consider it something that should be conceived as a lifelong project. And a worrying percentage hold toxic and possessive ideas: 31% believe they deserve to know where their partner is at all times, 23% interpret jealousy as proof of love, and 21% normalize checking their partner’s phone.
These figures come from the new Youth and Gender Barometer by FAD Juventud, based on online surveys of a sample of 3,327 people, of whom 1,528 are young people aged 15 to 29. The study, funded by the Government Delegation against Gender Violence of the Ministry of Equality, was conducted between April and May of last year.
Its social media, people like musk have a broken view on women and help push that sentiment on their platforms
“Haha, feminists are dumb, feminism is just political manipulation,”
said the guy, then went on to read X about how awesome Trump/Musk is and watch Andrew Tate between dota 2 matches.
Quick questions, couldn’t see them in the article.
Does anyone know if:
They provide a definition of ‘feminism’ (1st wave, 2nd wave etc)?
How important is this to increasing or maintaining their funding?
La propaganda funcionando. No hay mas.
Today I learned that feminism is an antonym to”romantic love” (the equivalent of Karpman’s Drama Triangle)
Most women are feminist even if polls don’t show it. It’s just the type of feminism they ascribe to that’s at question.
At one point I was a feminist. They said it was about equality. Then it all changed. Now Im not a femist. And feminism has not been about equality for a very long time. – Switch and bait, but we got wiser.
“Lowest since 2021” is certainly a phrase.
Of course nobody sane wants to be a modern day feminist.
Equal rights = good
Politicized endless gender wars masquerading as rights activism = bad
People aren’t less “feminist”, they’re less pro movements that claim to be so
This is a necessary narrative course correction as some absolutely hateful groups attach themselves to both women’s and men’s rights movements
Reddit is a good example, with how many femcel subs exist and even get promoted vs how quickly incel subs get purged
Feminism should be defined first. Women should have the same rights and rhensame responsibilities as men in society.
Gracias Irene Montero por ser un espantapájaros.
European redditors will tell you of the evils of islam and MAGAism and then go back to “women get DESTROYED” era when its feminism in their countries or self criticism.
People are probably just waking up to the fact that modern feminism is a victimhood mentality that hasn’t managed to build anything.
There is probably a lot nuance in this discussion, but why bother if it will generate fewer clicks. Don’t fall for it 🙂
Wtf is happening in this thread and all the commenters who seem to believe the weirdest claims about what feminism is
M38 here. I would say I’m a feminist, and studying intersectionalism, sociology, and psychology has helped me become a pretty good therapist. But I do think that the culture war from dominantly American social media where mostly white middle class Californians dictate topics for social activism has contributed to sullying the image of feminism and overshadowing real issues.
And the response to that has been a toxic right-wing grift that is contributing to the fall of decency.
The problem with movements like that, that tackle legitimate issues and eventually catch fire, is that they couldn’t stop winning. The current under 30s generation is probably the first generation in history where males are structurally under privileged, but many young feminists fail to see their privilege and actually fight for gender equality.
What actually happened is that left groups have monopolized the feminist movement. Basically, you’re either with them or you hate women. In addition, they have damaged a lot its reputation (lowering prison time for sex offenders, members of the left being sex offenders themselves, etc).
TL;DR: People still belive in feminism, but feminism itself have been heavily deprestiged due to the wrongdoings of the left
It makes sense. A lot of “feminism” today is about getting a career path to state subventions. To that effect, it ends up as “clashing with men on every subject” on social media and people are just getting fed up with that behaviour. No later than today on a french sub I was called a masculinist for daring to say parents should protect their children from harm.
Having the most insane, man hating feminist be the face of feminsim for close to 20 + years, do that to people.
Most women are still feminist, its the guys who A THIRD OF THE YOUNG GUYS defend having a dictatorship as a good thing and demand women going back to the kitchen and having babies.
Its hard having hope for the future
Good. Its such a dumb thing anyways in how its being used. Feminism when it suits you. All the pro’s but none of the cons.
I think all woman should be treated fairly and without any bias. Goes without saying But feminism has become so much more in a negative way I can see why people distance themselves from it
Everyone does or should agree that we should be equal in terms of gender. Feminists would say that means all those people are feminist.
But the issue is Feminism is not just an acceptance of a single sentence. Feminism is ultimately a political movement and calling yourself a feminist holds a lot of implicity about your other values like abortion, LGBTQ rights and equity vs equality.
What it means in practice is feminism and believing in gender equality are not a 1 to 1 sentence.
They can go into the woods and ask the nearest bear for support. Men are clearly not welcome.
3rd and especially 4th wave feminism is just double standards and asking for preferential treatment. it’s illogical. that is why ppl turned away.
Literally just chuds and the confused in this comment section
4th wave feminism has been totally useless. Women in 2026 have basically the same rights they had in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
Actually we could probably all agree that women have lost some of their rights in certain parts of the western world (think about the US).
So, if an ideology doesn’t change the world for the better in more than a decade and ends up actually not being able to defend some of the most important rights obteined by the previous generation, it only means that such ideology is devoid of any real meaning and political purpose.
Feminism right now is a brand, a marketing strategy, an advertising billboard, a fashion line. You can make a lot of money with Feminism if you understand how to use it to promote your work.
Unfortunately, none of that stuff have any meaningful impact in the real world.
It’s so funny to see how feminist responds to Russia ukraine war. They are saying everyone should avoid draft and flee.
Well people spend a lot of time online and everyone doing so is exposed to bs gender wars constantly
Nowadays when I think of feminism it’s negative thoughts only. Similarly to how I used to feel about vegans 10 years ago because anytime I had any encounters with them was on social media and they were batshit insane.
I think this is more a specific brand of “feminism”®
The vast majority of feminism I’ve encountered offline(through books, conversations with people, etc.) has been perfectly reasonable and basically seems like common sense for anyone with even a sliver of empathy.
The vast majority of feminism I’ve encountered online is inane bullshit that does not hold up to even the slightest scrutiny and seems like it was engineered to divide people.
Classic /r/europe yikes moment in the comment section
Culture war is how they divided the masses, divide and conquer for real. Let’s not make the same mistakes that the USA did, let’s not alienate both the left and the right into their own extremes
They are learning not to outsource their thinking to collectives.
Feminism largely isn’t what it used to be. Anyone who cant accept that is delusional.
Geeee i wonder why
Good.