Young women have never had more freedom, more education or more money. So why are so many of them so miserable – and so hostile to men? Everyone has a theory. Jonathan Haidt blames the smartphone: girls’ anxiety and depression began soaring around 2012, just as Instagram took hold. Others point to the pandemic, to economic gloom, to universities steeping students in grievance politics, to years of #MeToo messaging teaching girls to see menace in ordinary male behaviour. The results show up in the polls. Only half of young British women now view men positively, against 72% of young men who view women positively – and among women under 25, the figure is barely a third.
All of these explanations play a part. But I think we’ve missed something vital – something that set the stage long before the first iPhone.
