Gen Z men are more traditional than their fathers

A sweeping new global study overturns one of the most comfortable assumptions of our time, that younger generations are naturally more progressive when it comes to gender and marriage. The numbers tell a more complicated story.

The research, published by King's College London in partnership with Ipsos to mark International Women's Day 2026, surveyed adults across 29 countries including the UK, the United States, Brazil, Australia, and India. Its findings on generational attitudes were striking enough to prompt serious debate, and they deserve more than a scroll past. 31% of Gen z Men believe a wife should always obey her husband, 24% say women should not appear too independent or self-sufficient, and 21% believe a "real woman" should never initiate intimacy

They represent a meaningful slice of a generation that is simultaneously the most educated, the most digitally connected, and in many ways the most economically precarious in recent history. That last point may matter more than it first appears.

The women of Gen Z disagree sharply

What the study also reveals, with equal clarity, is a widening fault line within Gen Z itself. While 31% of Gen Z men support wifely obedience, only 18% of Gen Z women do, itself a number worth examining, but a dramatic contrast nonetheless. On the question of female independence, 24% of Gen Z men are uncomfortable with it; 15% of Gen Z women share that view.

This internal divide may be the most consequential finding of all. Two people from the same generation, shaped by the same cultural moment, are arriving at profoundly different conclusions about how a shared life should be organized. That divergence has practical implications, for who gets to make decisions in a household, for whose career gets prioritized, for what a partnership actually looks like from the inside.

Masculinity, redefined downward

The study probed not just attitudes toward women, but toward men themselves. Some of the results are worth sitting with. Nearly a third of Gen Z men, 30%, said men should not say "I love you." Some 43% believed young men should strive to be physically strong even if their natural build is slight. And 21% said that a man who does housework or childcare compromises his masculinity.

Professor Heejung Chung, Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership at King's Business School, noted that the persistence of traditional gender norms today is cause for concern, and that the pressure to conform to them may not always reflect people's genuine beliefs. The performance of traditional masculinity, in other words, may be running ahead of actual conviction.

None of this makes Gen Z a monolith. The same study found that 59% of Gen Z men believe men need to make more effort to support gender equality, a higher proportion than among older men, at 45%. Contradictions live inside generations just as they live inside individuals. Young men can simultaneously hold retrograde views about obedience and express support for equality in the abstract. The gap between what people say they value and how they actually behave is, of course, the oldest story in social science.

Marriage, in Lebanon

In Lebanon, these findings land on familiar ground. Marriage has long operated within a framework where tradition, religion, and family expectations shape not just the ceremony, but the structure of daily life. While many young couples speak the language of partnership and equality, the reality often remains more negotiated than equal. Decisions about where to live, whose career is prioritized, or even how visible a woman’s independence can be are still, in many cases, quietly influenced by older norms.

What the study suggests is not that Gen Z in Lebanon is uniquely traditional, but that it is not as removed from these inherited dynamics as it might present itself to be. The tension shows up in subtle ways: men who support ambitious, educated partners but still expect to lead, and women who are encouraged to succeed professionally but remain tethered to expectations around caregiving and adaptability.

Between tradition and modernity

Progress, as proven, is neither linear nor guaranteed. Gen Z may speak more openly about equality than any generation before it, but belief alone does not reshape institutions as deeply rooted as marriage. In Lebanon, where tradition and modernity have always coexisted uneasily, the real question is not what young people say they want, but what they are willing, or able, to practice when it comes time to build a life together.