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Gen Z Men Are Twice as Likely as Baby Boomers to Say Women Should ‘Obey’ Them

Imagine dating someone who says he loves ambitious women, then follows it up with “a wife should obey.”

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Imagine dating someone who says he loves ambitious women, then follows it up with “a wife should obey.” That contradiction lives in new survey data, with 31 percent of Gen Z men backing obedience in marriage.

Ipsos and King’s College London’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership surveyed 23,000 people across 29 countries for International Women’s Day 2026. In the results, a startling 31 percent of Gen Z men agreed that “a wife should always obey her husband.”

Another 33 percent said a husband should have the final word on important household decisions. Baby Boomer men landed at 13 percent on “obey” and 17 percent on “final word.” Gen Z women came in at 18 percent, and Baby Boomer women at 6 percent.

More Gen Z Men Than Baby Boomers Think Women Should ‘Obey’ Them

The “obey” stat is the one that gets screenshotted, but it doesn’t stand alone. The same survey found 24 percent of Gen Z men agreed a woman shouldn’t appear too independent or self-sufficient. Twenty-one percent agreed that a “real woman” should never initiate sex.

Another set of answers circled masculinity like it was a fragile piece of glass. Forty-three percent said young men should try to be physically tough even if they’re not naturally big. Thirty percent said men shouldn’t tell their friends “I love you.” Twenty-one percent said men who take part in childcare are less masculine. It’s not a good look, fellas.

Now for the part that makes your brain hurt. Gen Z men were also the group most likely to say women with successful careers are attractive, 41 percent agreed, compared with 27 percent of Baby Boomers of both genders. Ipsos UK and Ireland CEO Kelly Beaver called it “an interesting duality.”

So what do you do with a worldview that wants a high-achieving partner and a household hierarchy? You watch it play out in dating, cohabiting, marriage, divorce, custody fights, and every “we’re modern, but…” conversation that starts with someone pretending the word “obey” has a cute, harmless meaning. “He means well…”

Professor Heejung Chung at King’s put part of the blame on social pressure, saying people feel “pressured by social expectations that do not actually reflect what most of us believe.” The survey backs that up. Globally, 17 percent said women should take on most childcare, and 16 percent said women should take on most household chores. Yet 35 percent thought people in their country expect women to handle that domestic load.

Julia Gillard, chair of the institute, summed up the risk without sugarcoating it. Some Gen Z men are “putting limiting expectations on women” while also “trapping themselves within restrictive gender norms.”

If you want to know why this feels so maddening, start there. A decent chunk of young men want the benefits of modern women, plus rules that keep those women smaller. Sorry, dudes. You can’t have it both ways.

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