By Sehr Khosla
Across multiple Asian countries, young men and women are increasingly diverging in their views on gender roles, equality and relationships.
Skyline of the Central Business District of Singapore at night. Basile Morin. CC BY-SA 4.0.
When SG Her Empowerment (SHE), a Singapore nonprofit that works to empower girls and women, released preliminary findings from its Gender Norms Perceptions Study last month, one statistic stood out. Rather than showing younger Singaporeans becoming more progressive across the board, the research suggested the opposite: Gen Z men and women appear to be moving further apart in how they understand gender itself.
The study, which surveyed 2,087 Singapore citizens and permanent residents, found the widest gender gap among Gen Z respondents. While young women were significantly more likely to reject traditional expectations for both men and women, young men's views remained comparatively consistent across generations. Among Gen Z respondents, 54% of women disagreed that a woman's primary role in society is to be a wife, compared with just 29% of men. On men's roles, half of Gen Z women rejected the idea that a man's main purpose is to be a husband, while only 26% of Gen Z men did the same.
Perhaps more strikingly, 30% of Gen Z and millennial men agreed or remained neutral when asked whether there were situations in which spousal violence could be acceptable, compared with 20% of baby boomer and older men. Around 80% of respondents overall rejected the idea outright, but the generational difference has prompted fresh questions about how young men are forming their views on relationships and gender.
Singapore is not an isolated case, with research suggesting younger men and women across the region are diverging in how they view gender, equality and social change. Ipsos' 2026 International Women's Day study found that Gen Z men globally were the generation most likely to endorse traditional beliefs about obedience, decision-making and gender roles, with almost one-third agreeing that "a wife should obey her husband." The survey also found growing concern among young men that men are expected to do too much to support equality, suggesting attitudes are shifting across countries rather than within any one society alone.
In Hong Kong, research commissioned by The Women's Foundation found that more than 75% of young men surveyed held conservative views toward gender roles to varying degrees. Researchers categorized respondents into four groups: Macho, Restrained, Paternalistic and Liberal. The Paternalistic group, nearly half of the men surveyed, favored traditional expectations such as women prioritising motherhood over careers.
South Korea presents perhaps the region's starkest example of this widening divide. The country's growing gender gap has increasingly become a political issue, with young men shifting toward conservative parties while young women have moved in the opposite direction. Analysts interviewed by Global Voices argued that economic insecurity, hyper-competition and a perception among some young men that feminism threatens their opportunities have fueled this divide, even as women continue to face significant inequalities in the workplace and wider society.
The divide is not unique to Asia. In the United States, a 2025 NBC News Decision Desk poll found similarly stark differences between Gen Z men and women that stretched beyond politics into their expectations for adulthood. Young men were considerably more likely than young women to say getting married and having children were important to them, while young women placed greater emphasis on having a fulfilling career.
Taken alongside trends emerging across Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea, the findings suggest the Gen Z gender divide is not simply a regional phenomenon; young men and women are increasingly diverging not only in their politics, but in how they imagine relationships, gender roles and their futures.
While there is no single explanation for the widening divide, researchers are increasingly looking at the role of online spaces in shaping young men's attitudes. UN Women has warned that the growing "manosphere," a network of online communities centred on anti-feminist and misogynistic narratives, is increasingly reaching boys and young men seeking advice on dating, fitness and identity.
According to the Movember Foundation, nearly two-thirds of young men regularly engage with masculinity influencers online. While some creators offer genuine support, UN Women says many promote sexist ideologies that portray men as victims of feminism and modern social change, with recommendation algorithms amplifying increasingly polarising content.
Yet experts caution that the issue is not simply about misogyny, but also about the pressures many young men face. Writing in Focus Malaysia, Priyankka Gunalan argues that rigid ideas of masculinity often discourage boys from expressing vulnerability or seeking help, contributing to poor mental health outcomes and leaving some searching for belonging online. Together, these emotional pressures and digital echo chambers may create an environment where increasingly rigid ideas about gender can take hold.
Importantly, researchers caution against reducing this shift to a single cause. Natalie Chia, SHE's director of research, said younger Singaporeans have grown up with greater exposure to sexual content online, including material depicting coercion and violence, while recommendation algorithms may expose young men to such content accidentally.
"A generation encountering this kind of content at scale is likely to have its sense of what's acceptable shaped by it," Chia told Channel News Asia.
Other research has pointed to financial insecurity, housing pressures and online masculinity influencers as reinforcing traditional ideas about gender during a period of rapid social change.
The implications extend beyond debates about equality. Chia warned that the widening gap may make it increasingly difficult for young men and women to find common ground when discussing gender issues. As societies across Asia grapple with changing expectations around work, family and identity, the challenge may no longer be whether attitudes are changing, but whether young people are changing together.
Sehr Khosla
Sehr is a student at Georgetown University studying Classics and Government with a minor in Journalism. In the future, she hopes to combine her passion for social justice with communications to advocate for change. Outside of writing, she enjoys travelling and reading murder mysteries.