Generation Z of 18-24 year olds is at the forefront on issues such as ecology or the deconstruction of gender. But, moreover, she votes more massively than 25-34 year olds for parties like the National Rally (RN) or Reconquest!…The sociologist Monique Dagnaudauthor of Overeducated generation (Odile Jacob, 2021)helps us see things more clearly.
Is Generation Z more fragmented in their political opinions than previous generations?
Monique Dagnaud: Youth has never been a homogeneous group and it is less and less so. Half of this generation is pursuing higher education. For this part, the duration of studies is further extended, so that around a quarter of this age group reaches a Bac+5 level. However, this part which studies brings together young people who live in larger cities, spend time learning, cultivating themselves, thinking about their existence and voting for a very large majority for the left, the extreme- left or environmentalists. It is important to see that radicalism affects young people as a whole, even those who pursue long and elitist studies. In 2022, Sciences Po Paris students voted 55% for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. At the same time, the other half of young people are already on the job market or in professional training. This population lives further from the centers and is made up of individuals who are sometimes school dropouts, unemployed or who struggle to obtain a stable professional situation. However, when you are a young boy, economically weakened, and you have the impression that your hopes of success are slim, you vote for the extreme right, and particularly the RN. Those who consider themselves losers from globalization, forgotten in neglected regions, harbor resentment, for example, towards immigrants, considering that they are taking away jobs or public aid that could be theirs. Reconquest! brings together a more bourgeois and conservative youth, carrying traditional values, committed against marriage for all or abortion. This fringe is more visible but remains a minority compared to those who vote Marine Le Pen because they do not find their place in society.
“Young people have never been a homogeneous group and they are less and less so”
Is this ideological polarization unprecedented?
It is growing but not new. The RN has been attracting young people for a decade. On the left, we experienced very radical movements coming from universities in the 1970s but initially with a project of individual emancipation (sexual freedom, minority rights, etc.) and an aspiration for social improvement. Today, the struggles are more fragmented among young people, between ecology, feminism, the defense of the rights of ethnic or sexual minorities on one side, and on the other those who want to stop immigration and want a return of state authority.
Do the ideologies of youth maintain each other by opposing each other?
In a way. Young urban graduates are on the decline, boasting a frugal lifestyle where they travel by bicycle, where they manage to travel without taking a plane, etc. On the side of the RN electorate, the idea of degrowth can be experienced as a questioning of their way of life and of elements to which they are attached: the car – which is a need for people who live outside large cities – and suburban property are good examples. On the left, we criticize authoritarian excesses, and on the right, we support a more sovereign, dirigiste and firm state…
“Radical left-wing movements are mainly led by women, who tend to be qualified and live in the city. This is something new”
In this sense, the feminism of urban elites is considered “above ground” by certain young people who value the traditional family, or even a certain virilism. What do you think ?
This is true but virilism does not currently have, to my knowledge, any very clear political translation. We don’t really see political figures taking up this subject. Jordan Bardella don’t talk about that, for example. This masculinist reaction is the work of a few not very organized individuals on social networks. Feminism is more structured: all questions relating to consent, male influence or even gender identities, all of this has been carried by organized political and associative movements, which have instilled profound changes in the modes of representation of women. youth. In two surveys that I carried out with Arte and France Culture in 2021 and 2022 – among a rather qualified audience, therefore – the results showed that 3.8% of 18-24 year olds defined themselves as non-binary, and 1.6% among 25-39 year olds – which is low in in light of the debates that cross the media on these subjects. At the same time, the family, after having been widely criticized in the 1970s as a matrix of paternalism and male domination, is confirmed as a value of trust for 90% of young French people, testifying that family lifestyles have greatly transformed, the families having become associative families.
What accelerated this polarization?
Until around the beginning of the 2010s, the predominant political issue for young people was integration into the job market. It suffered from a high unemployment rate and mobilized against the precariousness of some of its members (particularly those with few qualifications). In 2006, we remember the major mobilizations against the first employment contract, For example. In recent years, employment has no longer been the only subject and young people have been addressed differently in the political sphere. First of all, it positions itself on the front line against the consequences of climate change. Since 2015, we have noted a growing mobilization of young people for ecological issues. We also talk more about its citizen mobilization, on local issues or the civic field: let us mention the debates around Civic service then, in the recent period, on the Universal national service. The return of war to the European continent sharpens the debate on these questions, and young people are very divided. According to the online survey that I conducted in 2022 – among a rather qualified audience, once again –, 29% of 18-24 year olds who were well qualified or in the process of being so thought that they would never take weapons to defend their country and 39% said they did not know what they would do. Ecological uncertainty, the invasion of Ukraine and, even more so, the irruption of tragedy with the global Covid-19 pandemic, all of this has psychologically weakened young people and reinforced their desire to make a clean slate. In 2020, young people aged 18-24 were not the most exposed to the virus, and yet they emerged much more traumatized by this ordeal than older people.
“The level of higher education of women is today higher than that of men”
A recent Gallup poll also reveals that young women are more left-wing than men in countries as varied as the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Tunisia and South Korea. Is this a new dividing line among young people?
I believe him. Radical left-wing movements are even led mainly by women, who tend to be qualified and live in the city. This is something new. I would like to remind you that the level of higher education of women is today higher than that of men. Ecology, degrowth, the question of consent, all these subjects have been very taken up by these women who have emancipated themselves: they relativize a romantic conception of love at the same time as they reject the male domination associated with these old patterns. Moreover, if we look at women in their thirties, at the age when we start a family today, 72% of them are in a relationship in 2019 compared to 87% in 1975. The change is clear , even if it is not a revolution. We can evoke the idea of separatism, or more precisely of an estrangement, between women and men, particularly in the representations and aspirations.
What are the common points of rupture with the political concerns of older generations?
In the two studies that I coordinated in 2021 and 2022, I was very surprised to see that, for young people, freedom of expression was no longer as much of a value to defend, compared to older generations. Many are marked by their experience of social networks and have understood that it is impossible to say everything, because of the virulent criticism and harassment online. The defense of the idea of freedom in general is less strong than in previous generations, particularly those born after the war. First of all, there are certainly fewer freedoms to conquer today and young people have become wary, aware of the pitfalls of digitalized society. However, this does not prevent them from being the first users of the Internet.
