Newsletter January 8, 2026

Are Young White Men Facing Discrimination?

Daniel A. Cox

About a year ago, I was at the University of Virginia conducting interviews for my book. I had a lot of interesting conversations with students about dating, politics, and their goals for the future. But one interview in particular stuck out. When I talked to Max, a senior preparing to graduate, he casually expressed that while his employment prospects were good, some places would not want him because he is a “white guy.” He elaborated: “Every time you apply for essentially any job here, there’s a checkbox on the application for race, gender, disability. And I think a lot of people, you know, they see that and they’ll think ‘they don’t want to hire me.’”

A recent essay published in Compact Magazine reminded me of my conversation with Max. Jacob Savage’s “The Lost Generation” argues that, over the last decade, professional opportunities for white millennial men have been disappearing due to discriminatory hiring practices. Savage argued that as organizations sought to implement policies aimed at boosting the hiring of women and minority candidates, it was white male applicants who lost out—especially those in the early stages of their careers. He cites an abundance of data to support his argument, including the following:

• “Since 2020, nearly two-thirds of The Atlantic’s hires have been women, along with nearly 50 percent people of color. In 2024, The Atlantic announced that three-quarters of editorial hires in the past year had been women and 69 percent people of color.”
• “In 2018, The New York Times replaced its summer internship with a year-long fellowship. Just 10 percent of the nearly 220 fellows have been white men.”
• “At Berkeley, as recently as 2015, white male hires were 52.7 percent of new tenure-track faculty; in 2023, they were 21.5 percent.”
• “Mid-level Amazon managers fell from 55.8 percent white male in 2014 to just 33.8 percent in 2024—a decline of nearly 40 percent.”

Predictably, people had a lot to say about Savage’s argument. There were those who argued that these policies had a negligible impact on men’s overall economic prospects. Matt Bruening, for example, cited U.S. Census data showing that white men in their 30s did not experience any measurable decline in employment over the last decade. Others countered by arguing that there was plenty of evidence showing women continue to face hurdles in their professional and personal lives—that modest interventions aimed at helping women or people of color did not go far enough. In some corners of the Internet, the article set off a race to the bottom, a perverse incentive to prove who has it worse in America—men or women.

It’s obviously difficult to quantify the impact of discrimination simply by looking at outcomes. As Noah Smith helpfully pointed out: “The capitalist system is remarkably effective at allowing people to succeed in the face of discrimination.” But efforts to exclude people on the basis of gender or race can be uniquely destructive, even if some of their victims persevere in spite of them. A friend of mine at an Ivy League University recalled an incident when one of his colleagues publicly exulted after successfully screening out all the white male applicants from a shared spreadsheet the department was using for a post-doc job search. Anecdotes like this one are prolific, and their impact lies in the fact that they live large in our imaginations, even if their aggregate impact remains relatively modest.

Ironically, the group most impacted by this movement has not been millennial men, but the generation following them. It was not millennial men, but Gen Z men who grew up with terms such as “mansplaining” and “male privilege” ingrained in the youth lexicon. Whatever you think about the necessity of DEI employment practices, the public messaging was undeniably ineffective, often counterproductive, and potentially alienating. It happened to coincide with the emergence of cultural narratives aimed at expanding opportunities for girls and women in spaces where they had been excluded. Girls were told that the “Force is Female,” but boys could no longer belong to the Boy Scouts. They learned that while it was important for girls to have their own spaces, male-only spaces were less necessary or problematic.

There is at least some evidence that this messaging is having an impact. We found that Gen Z men were less likely than millennial men to identify as feminist. What’s more, the share of young men who believe that men face discrimination in the US has soared in recent years. In 2025, more than half (51 percent) of young men said there was at least some discrimination against men in American society. As recently as 2019, less than one-in-three young men said this was true. There is now a 22-point gender gap in views about discrimination among young adults.

Ironically, the growing pessimism expressed by young men is mirrored by young women, who feel things are getting worse for them as well. Young women today are much more likely to believe they are facing broad-based discrimination than their mothers did. Sixty percent of young women believe that society values women less than men, while women ages 65 and older are far less likely to agree. Identifying the cause of these generational differences is challenging, but it’s certainly possible that societal messaging—abetted by social media algorithms—has played a role.

Over the holiday, I went with my family to a massive three-story Barnes & Noble in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. I wandered over to the social science section and immediately noticed a collection of books set out on a table. The titles included: Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good, Men Who Hate Women: The Truth about Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects All of Us, Hood Feminism: Notes From the Women That A Movement Forgot, and Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language. These works reflect the justifiable anger that many women feel about the treatment of women, but they can profoundly alter our sense of societal fairness and diminish our appreciation of progress.

One of the tragedies is that there is so much room for reasonableness in the debate about inequality, but it is often overtaken by single-minded and aggrieved voices. Arguments that past discrimination justifies present discrimination will create endless cycles of recrimination and resentment. When it comes to gender, both sides believe they are being treated unfairly and that our institutions are refusing to address the problem or are actively making it worse. While it’s not surprising, it’s still unfortunate to see how quickly discussions descend into tribal conflict.

It is not difficult to marshal evidence to suit preferred narratives. Girls look up and see the most prestigious and coveted professional positions occupied by men. When girls look at who is running America’s largest and most recognized companies, they see relatively few women. Only 10 percent of Fortune 500 companies have a female CEO, and their average tenure as chief executive is years shorter than that of their male counterparts. But when boys look around their classrooms, they see their female peers consistently claiming the largest academic prizes. A recent Pew poll found that nearly half (47 percent) of all teenage girls say that the girls at their school are dominating the boys academically. Only one percent say boys are doing better.

We desperately need to instill greater trust in our social, cultural, and political institutions. This is extraordinarily difficult to accomplish if people do not believe they are being treated fairly. Employees and applicants need to believe that individual efforts and abilities are recognized and rewarded, rather than our group membership.

This does not preclude us from addressing past or current discriminatory practices. But the public messaging around these efforts matters a great deal. It means these efforts should be targeted, well-specified, and transparent. What’s more, efforts to aid women must be coupled with a greater commitment to address the unique challenges that men face as well. Most young white men acknowledge the value of diversity, are aware of the existence of structural discrimination, and do not oppose efforts to combat it. Nearly six in ten (58 percent) young men in a 2025 Pew poll said that women face “a lot” or “some” discrimination in American society. Even more notably, although DEI policies likely had a disproportionate effect on men seeking white-collar positions, college-educated young men generally feel less disadvantaged by their gender than those without a degree. Progress requires that we move beyond binary narratives about equality and recognize that it’s in all of our interests to remove barriers to opportunity. It’s not impossible, but we have a long way to go.

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