If your typical FYP is getting inundated with tradwife aesthetic videos and podcast clips about being an “alpha male,” you’re definitely not alone. Across social media, young people are being fed content that leans into old-fashioned ideas about how men and women “should” act. And according to new data, this push toward traditional gender expectations is reflected not just online, but also in how young people are thinking about leadership in the real world.
According to the Reykjavik Index for Leadership, the U.S. is falling behind in terms of how the country views gender equality in the workplace, and young people are leading this downward trend. Since 2018, the index — which was created by the Reykjavik Global Forum, a community that supports women’s leadership around the world, and research agency Verian Group — serves as an annual measurement of whether countries view men and women as equally suited for leadership across 23 economic sectors. The closer a country’s score is to 100, the more that country views women and men as equally suitable for leadership.
Young Americans Aren’t As Progressive On Gender Equality As They Might Seem.
The 2025 data places the United States at a score of 65, which is not only one of the lowest scores among the other nations included in the index — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom — but also marks part of a multi-year decline in views on gender equality documented from 2018 through 2025. According to the index’s sector breakdown, fields like defense and police, automotive, and engineering are still widely seen as areas where men are better suited for leadership. Meanwhile, sectors such as childcare, fashion, and beauty are viewed as better suited for women. Basically, these are gender roles that have been common for generations, proving that even as sectors have made strides toward workplace equality, some deeply held beliefs aren’t going away — and in fact, they might be getting stronger.
Arguably the most shocking finding from the index comes when you break down the data by age. According to the index, scores for Americans ages 18 to 34 (so basically, older Gen Zers and young Millennials) signal a noticeable generational gap in attitudes toward gender equality… and not in the direction you might think. For men ages 18 to 34 the score was 58, while for women in the same age range the score was 64 — both lower than the overall score for the United States, which is already historically low.
For many, this data might be unexpected, considering Gen Z is often talked about as the most progressive generation, but these numbers show young adults expressing more gender-specific views than the age groups above them. Notably, this pattern isn’t happening only in the U.S. The report shows similar age gaps in other G7 countries, including Germany and France, where younger adults also scored lower than older age groups.
What Does This Mean?
As Gen Zers figure out their career paths, these attitudes about who “fits” certain roles can start shaping their choices — even long before anyone actually steps into the workforce. When leadership in fields like STEM, finance, and defense is still imagined as more masculine, and when caregiving and beauty-related roles feel more suitable for women, it affects who feels confident, prepared, and qualified to pursue certain college majors, then internships, then jobs, and eventually leadership positions. On a larger scale, these perceptions can reinforce gender divides within industries and even influence long-standing pay gaps, since jobs associated with femininity have been historically undervalued compared to male-dominated fields.
But while this index paints a scary picture, it isn’t a final judgment on gender equality. The data is exactly that: data. It’s information that can be used to shed light on this trend — and empower people to push back. If anything, these findings show that ideas about gender roles and leadership are still being shaped, challenged, and reinforced by young people, so they can help influence what they want gender, leadership, and equality to look like in the future.