Young women have invested a lot in their education, which is why, on average, they face the challenges of school and training with more ease and serenity. They are also more relaxed when it comes to the reconciliation of work and family or the consequences of a pluralistic society. This has to do with the emancipation movement of the last 30 years. Many young women benefit from this.
Yes, that’s true, but there’s also the other side.In recent times, women have taken on more and more management
As more and more groups in society desire power, prestige and recognition, this comes at the expense of those who were previously highly privileged. There is no infinite number of great positions; this applies to both business and politics.
But this also has consequences. You can see it in the family. My father said: that works, that doesn’t work. Today everyone talks, the children, the wife. When it comes to your vacation destination, when it comes to the question of whether to get a pet. The family has become more democratic, compromises must be found. Many people think this is positive, even young women and young men. But not all young people. And this is understandable. They are giving up the privileges that their fathers still had.
After the publication of our study, there was a lot of talk about the alleged rightward shift among young people. To understand better: if you look at both genders over time, you can see that women have become more and more progressive. They are also currently the most progressive and idealistic, while materialistic values are becoming more significant among young people again. At the same time, most young people have moved further to the left. But the part that was already further to the right has moved further to the right. These young people are quite hostile to modernization, have a very conventional mentality and relatively troubled by the tough times they are currently experiencing.
It doesn’t have so much to do with a real disadvantage as it does with the feeling of being disadvantaged or having something to lose. These are young people who feel that changes in the economy and job market – artificial intelligence, automation, globalization – are taking away their control over their lives.
While most young people believe in a better future, this group has lost faith in it. You see that the jobs are becoming more challenging and that more is required. That – to put it bluntly – it’s no longer good to work in silence.The fact that as a craftsman you are now pushed into the lower middle class due to the tendency to study. That well-paid
Couldn’t this uncertainty be addressed with better training?
To some extent this is certainly possible. But in the long term our society will also have to find answers to the question of how to deal with those who do not have good opportunities in the modern labor market. So far I don’t think it’s being talked about widely.
I sometimes watch right-wing populist election ads with my students. I have the feeling that its creators had already foreseen the results of our study. The fears, insecurities or identity issues that we highlight are taken up in these commercials and skilfully filmed in a socio-educational way.
Let’s take the question of the budget and who should be responsible for it. The message of an advert would be more or less this: “Who likes washing dishes then? Obviously me neither.” The audience should get the feeling: It’s perfectly fine if you think housework is women’s work. You are fine just the way you are.
Our study shows that we have a small group, in our typology “progressives”, who are not sensitive to right-wing election advertising. For all other groups there are individual issues on which they are susceptible to right-wing populism. In essence,it can be said that young people in East Germany have the same fears as young people in West Germany – of war,of economic uncertainty – but that these fears are stronger. Just like dissatisfaction with democracy. This is even more pronounced among young men in East Germany than among women, especially if they do not have such a high educational qualification. I suspect that many of parents’ and grandparents’ fears of decline are passed on to young people, but we have not investigated this.
For a long time, the symbol of disadvantage was the Catholic girl in the country: as she was Catholic, she had less access to education, because she was a girl, this was reinforced and there were fewer opportunities in the country anyway.Today this multiple disadvantage affects children with a migrant background who grow up in big cities. They are the ones who experience the greatest disadvantages in the system. Simultaneously occurring, optimism for the future is particularly high among recently arrived migrants. they know that it will be
more difficult for them, that maybe they won’t be able to get a promotion, but first they see the many opportunities they have in Germany.