1.2 Relevant theoretical approaches for explaining potential Gen Z gender divides The following section develops several theoretical approaches for explaining potential divides between young men and women today. These include the reasoning that young men and women differently benefit from the modernising and liberalising trends of the past decades in Western societies. Furthermore, young women today outperform men in terms of higher educational attainment and are advancing on the entry-level labour market. Additionally, gender differences in social media consumption may contribute to explaining why young men and women may be drifting apart in their political behaviour – especially in contexts where political parties increasingly discuss political questions related to gender. 1.2.1 The gendered consequences of modernising and liberalising societies A tradition of research on political culture and progressive value change argues that, in economically advanced democracies, such as Western European democracies, younger generations become more progressively socialised relative to older generations because technological advancements, improvements in human development, secularisation and improvements in equal opportunities improve younger generations’ levels of material and intellectual resources, individual opportunities, and freedom of expression relative to older generations. 36 In this case, this research would expect Gen Z women and men in economically advanced democracies to converge as relatively progressive in their voting, ideology and political attitudes. However, this research does not consider the rather stark gender differences in improvement in resources, opportunities and autonomy that these societal changes generate for young women and men relative to their female and male counterparts of previous generations. Today, young women do relatively better than their mothers and grandmothers, while young men do not experience the same degree of improvement relative to their fathers and grandfathers in terms of resources, opportunities and autonomy. “Today, young women do relatively better than their mothers and grandmothers, while young men do not experience the same degree of improvement relative to their fathers and grandfathers in terms of resources, opportunities and autonomy.” Through erosion of the patriarchal, male dominance of social structures, the youngest generations increasingly inherit societies marked by declines in men’s privileged access to economic and educational resources, labour market opportunities, and societal and household decision-making power. As a result, young men may be more vulnerable to perceptions of progressive societal change as being threatening and may stagnate in their progressivism or even move towards more conservatism relative to young women. 37 Contextual variation may dampen or amplify this potential vulnerability. 38 Contexts with higher levels of economic security and lower levels of elite/media cueing on the loss of men’s status will likely result in young men being less vulnerable to threat perception of progressive societal change. On the flip side, economic insecurity and elite/media “ “Today, young women do relatively better than their mothers and grandmothers, while young men do not experience the same degree of improvement relative to their fathers and grandfathers in terms of resources, opportunities and autonomy.” ” EqualiZe 27