Canadian adult men under the age of 35 are more likely to say gender equality has gone “far enough” and hold traditional views of gender roles than the general population, new polling data suggests.
The Ipsos data found 57 per cent of young males surveyed think Canada has done enough in giving women equal rights to men, compared to 40 per cent of Canadians overall.
One-quarter of male respondents under 35 said they agreed that “a husband should have the final word on important decisions made in his home,” while 54 per cent believe the promotion of gender equality has reached the point of discriminating against men.
Both numbers also exceeded the general population responses by double digits.
“It’s heartbreaking, it’s upsetting, but it’s not surprising,” said Humberto Carolo, CEO of White Ribbon Canada, an organization focused on engaging men and boys on healthy relationships and ending gender-based violence and misogyny.
“This is the kind of ideology that younger men are being more and more exposed to nowadays (online),” he added. “We have a new generation of boys and young men growing up with these kinds of sexist, misogynistic, outdated norms, and you see that reflected in this new data.”
The results were part of a 29-country survey by Ipsos and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s College London that was released last week.
Ipsos shared the detailed Canadian findings with Global News on Thursday.
Overall, Canada was among the countries with the most positive views on gender equality among those surveyed, which included the United States, Britain, India, Brazil, Japan and South Africa.
Across questions like whether gender equality has gone far enough, if men are being discriminated against, and whether men are expected to do “too much” to support equality with women, Canadians overall were below the 29-country average by as much as 12 points.
Canadians were also less likely than the global average to agree with statements like wives should “obey” their husbands, that young men should strive to be physically tough, or that women shouldn’t appear “too independent.”
“Canadians are, generally, much more progressive than most other countries that we’ve run this poll in. So there is progress,” said Sanyam Sethi, vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs.
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“When you start digging beneath that headline, the attitudes between men and women get more complicated and sometimes contradictory.”
Notably, the share of Canadians who said gender equality has gone far enough in their country is up six points from last year.
And, as with the global average, attitudes become more traditional and negative towards equality when moving from older generations to younger age groups — particularly among men.
Carolo said the data reflects bigger challenges that mirror the organization’s own research, and are part of a larger global trend.
“Our own research has confirmed that, increasingly, boys and young men are being exposed to very sexist, outdated and misogynistic beliefs and attitudes and ideologies” on social media and within social and gaming platforms online, he said.
“Our research has indicated that four out of five educators have seen these kinds of misogynist and sexist ideas play out before them in their classrooms, and a majority of them have seen actually the transition from that kind of belief, that attitude, into actual acts of harassment and gender-based violence in classrooms and in schools.”
Rob Whitley, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, said young men today are exhibiting larger issues that the study doesn’t fully capture.
“One is that many men are lacking certain social skills, two is they’re lacking certain communication skills, and three, there’s actually very high levels of loneliness among young men,” he said.
“There are not adequate services to help men who are suffering, who are in pain, especially young men whose problems seem to be ignored. And as a consequence, many of them are going to the ‘manosphere’ and following some of these online figures as a way of trying to find a solution to issues.”
Ipsos found that Canadian adults under 35 were less likely to agree with negative or traditional gender statements than younger age groups in other countries.
For example, while 26 per cent of 18-to-35-year-olds in Canada said husbands should have the final word on household decisions, the global average was 28 per cent for millennials — who would be between 31 and 46 years old in 2026 — and 33 per cent for Generation Z, who are between ages 14 and 30.
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The poll also found a majority of Canadian adults under 35 generally believe achieving equality between men and women is personally important to them.
However, there was a 16-point gap between men and women in this age group, with 61 per cent of young men agreeing versus 77 per cent of women.
Women under the age of 35 were found to be much more positive toward gender equality and negative toward traditional gender roles compared to men.
Asked if they believe women won’t achieve equality with men in Canada unless there are more female leaders in business and government, 68 per cent of young women said yes — 31 points above young men who said the same.
Similarly large gaps were found on questions like whether the push for equality is discriminating against men (just 27 per cent of young women agreed versus 54 per cent of young men) and whether men are being asked to do too much to support gender equity (25 per cent versus 50 per cent)
Carolo said it was important for educators and organizations like White Ribbon to have the resources necessary to compete with viral online communities that oppose equality and that promote misogyny, often referred to as the “manosphere.”
He also stressed that education on healthy relationships and views on women needs to start younger than middle school or older grades of elementary school so that when boys encounter these narratives, they can reject them.
“Otherwise, our younger generations are falling into these kinds of ideologies that are not good for any of us — especially for women and girls who are on the receiving end of those misogynistic treatments and attitudes and behaviours, the violence and the harassment,” he said.
Whitley said it’s just as important to address the issues men are facing as well.
“It’s not a zero sum game, it’s not a competition,” he said. “The whole of society wins if men are thriving and women are thriving and men are healthy and women are healthy.
“Young men in particular, they crave respect and they crave to be respected, especially from other males. We need to find healthy, pro-social ways that will enable them to find that respect, such as being in the military reserve, being a volunteer, being a community leader, being a sports coach, because otherwise they will go down these dark routes.”
—With files from Global’s Touria Izri
These are the results of a 29-country survey conducted by Ipsos on its Global Advisor online platform between Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, and Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. For this survey, Ipsos interviewed a total of 21,028 adults aged 18- 74 in Canada, Republic of Ireland, Malaysia, South Africa, Türkiye, and the United States, 20-74 in Thailand, 21-74 in Indonesia and Singapore, and 16-74 in all other countries. The sample consists of approximately 2,000 individuals in Japan, 1,000 individuals each in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and the U.S., and 500 individuals each in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Thailand, and Türkiye.
The “29-country average” reflects the average result for all the countries and markets where the survey was conducted. It has not been adjusted to the population size of each country or market and is not intended to suggest a total result. The precision of Ipsos online polls is calculated using a credibility interval with a poll of 1,000 accurate to +/- 3.8 percentage points and of 500 accurate to +/- 5.0 percentage points. Percentages cited may not always add to 100% or to the sum of each value due to the effects of rounding.
For full methodological details on the study, please refer to the full International Women’s Day Global Report.
Young men, or is it just the demographic that now make up that age group in Canada? There are certainly fewer and fewer Canadians in that younger age group. Thanks Liberals for taking us backwards.
Wow
Global is working overtime to manipulate the comment section
Guess the responses they got didnt fit their preferred narrative
This is not about men and women it is about RADICALS in both sexes that are determined to divide us even more. Most men and women are compatible and can work together, it is the minority that is the problem.
Ah yes. It’s sexist and misogynistic for young men to think what they think…..
Maybe to help young men we should start by stopping the demonization of masculinity
Pretty sad when Global censor and delete comments calling them out on their censorship. Whats happened to open and honest news there commercials keep promoting ?
How many tax dollars go to these polls that no one needs?
Everything that can happen to women can happen to men as well.
Women’s lib has gotten to the point that it attacks men for being male and that has gone far enough. We should be asking how men and women can team up and work together for a calmer society. If we keep up the lie that men are being programmed by social media, then I ask what would the women use to deprogram young men? Social Media? When do women ask men out? When do women pay for dates? Why do men successfully complete suicide at a rate 3 times women? Should men also be abused and sexually assaulted? Everything that happens to women can happen to women too. The point is men treating with out respect is wrong and the same with women towards men. Let us find the issues, and instead of blaming each other about everything, lets find solutions and work together. Mother’s are just as important and fathers and women make great leaders. Lets look at it based on ability and if there is bias, then lets fix it immediately. We must work together because we need each other.
The young men are smart enough to see through the bleeding heart lefty veil that puts them at the bottom of the totem pole. NWO is here!
Why did global only get a guy who seems to be very anti male to discuss this? Just calling people sexist explains nothing.
Look at the crazy men who started all the wars throughout history and killed millions. Guys never learn with the recent Orange dictator wannabe repeating past history. Never learned.
Funny why they call it feminism when all they want to do is be more like men
They watched in horror as their fathers got destroyed in feminist-communist divorce courts.
op just deleting comments they dont like i guess, anything to keep the womanhood victim mentality going. Anything to divide us further eh global?
Gender equality was another big scam to get women into the workplace so they can charge us more tax and have us have less kids. Women don’t belong in a workplace, they’re a distraction. They belong at home looking after the kids. Reality is the North American woman has become such a problem no one wants them.
Women just complain about how hard they have it. So ashamed at being female. I in my 66 years has never felt less than a male. There have been countless women in history who did great things. I am tired of women and media portraying men as idiots.
The jokes on you Global, Sean we know youre a feminist but really ? censored comments . I’ve never witnessed so many fake female comments.
Women are still under represented in seats of power, and anyone in the corporate or public sector world knows that men speak over women and interrupt them. Men don’t do this to other men. Gender equality has not gone far enough.
Age is just one part of the “Angry Young Male” problem. It is important to look at the cultural influences of ethnicity and religion, influence of USA political figures, education, career objectives vs level attained, lifestyle expectations, whether parents had a healthy relationship, whether the young male was involved in a longterm, healthy relationship, ans myriad other potential problem influences.
This is why half you men are either single or gay 🤣 if you’re in a relationship the man doesn’t have the final say , you work as a TEAM and work on the final say TOGETHER !
I see the apologists for young men that want to point their finger at JT and the Liberals have shown. Yes, JT was a problem but that does not excuse young men choosing to be lazy and ambitionless. As a conservative I am all too aware that my taxes went to providing these young whiners with opportunities. They chose to not take advantage of them. And FYI, I work with a number of young professionals, male and female, Canadian born and new immigrants, all races, ethnicities, and creeds, and they are doing fine. Why is that? – Because they made good choices.
The poll fails ask the key question of why. We constantly see misogyny used in articles but misandry is never used.
What is equality? The current BC NDP requires more than 50% of it’s candidates to be either women or other visual minorities. It also requires women or visible minority candidates to replace male MLAs that are not seeking re-election. That isn’t equality that is open discrimination.
This has all been a ploy of the Liberals to separate the country along any lines they can. The whole gender thing is a big bunch of hooey. Besides I love little boys. Going to school in Kitchener today to stare at all the lovely young boys and whack my Trumpster.
The minute employers, universities and advertisers etc etc were given forced gender, LBGT+ and minority metrics a significant segment of the population became ignored.
All daughters make friends who studied the same or harder degrees can find work.
What about them. ( BTW my kids are mixed)
When the law allows discrimination against caucasian males for decades openly. Its gone fat enough. Only government failure departments can hire and employ least qualified individuals. Private companies just like sports teams want the best, hiring for excellence not in the DEI racist format. Twisted liberals cult ideology.
You can probably thank JT and tge Liberals immigration policies for the last 15 years for that poll result.LOL
Even the photo is just more of force messaging. Nothing wrong with it but those types of couples are one in 100 year probably dominate 90% of all advertising and Canadian photos in articles. I am in a mixed relationship and I can tell you, we are usually the only the one around.
“We have a new generation of boys and young men growing up with these kinds of sexist, misogynistic, outdated norms, and you see that reflected in this new data”
Yes, we are faced with the demand to hire on the basis of sex to force equal diversity instead of hiring on merit. We are inundated with TV shows like female Sherlock Holmes, or female Dr. Who. It is so sad that original shows starring women are not enough.
A lot of young men are just whining because they decided to be lazy and not compete. You only need to ask them for their high school grades. They’ll reveal selecting mediocre courses and marks to match. In contrast, I am meeting a lot of young women who choose to challenge themselves and excel.
Everyone is sick of having it shoved into our faces daily.