How do we get more men to join the anti-Trump resistance? |
In Donald Trump’s first term, my Brooklyn-based activist group had the peculiar dynamic of being started by two men while being composed of about 65% women. Since November 2024, our group has doubled in size, and the gender imbalance has tipped even further: we are now about 80% women.
Almost 18 months into Trump’s second term, it is abundantly clear that the appetite for anti-Trump, pro-democracy activism has not dimmed at all. And yet, there is a substantial portion of the populace that, in my experience as an activist, seems to have lost its fervor for the fight.
If I see two other men’s faces at one of my group’s events, it feels like we’ve had a pretty good masculine turnout. Bigger events like the No Kings rallies feature more men, but nearly everywhere we go under Trump 2.0, there is a notable paucity of men. “When we look at the demographics of Resistance 2.0 there is overwhelming consistency,” writes Dana R Fisher, who studies civic engagement at American University. “Participants are predominantly white, highly-educated, female, and middle-aged.” During Trump’s first term, things were similar: Laura Putnam and Theda Skocpol reported that women comprised “70% of the participants and most members of the leadership teams”. There is also a well-documented gender gap in Trump support.
So where did all the men go, and how can we get them on board?
Some men have veered right. Some have burned out, their engines flooded by a........