Majority of young Germans annoyed by gender politics

According to a study by the market research institute Rheingold, many in the younger generation do not know what gender policy is supposed to serve at all.

The rejection of gendering among the interviewees is also due to the fact that it causes a “linguistic stumbling block”. “You can no longer concentrate on what you actually want to talk about.”

Only 33 percent believe that it should help to include some people who do not define themselves as male or female, while 36 percent believed that gender focus could make women more visible.

Young women pushed the issue of gender the most. Young men, on the other hand, rejected gender focus because this also includes discriminating against males. “Officially gender is used as a sign of modernity,” study director Judith Barbolini warned.  But in private, it is not a focus because it would lead to trouble, she said.

For the survey, the institute interviewed 2000 adolescents and young adults. The study also found that 27 percent of the participants did not identify as male or female.

Older surveys had already shown that a majority of Germans reject gender language . Even among supporters of the Greens, only a minority wants to push through genderless speech.

Despite this, more and more German cities are using so-called “gender-equitable language” in their administration. The University of Kassel recently hit the headlines because a student there had to accept deduction of points for his examination paper because he had not gendered his work “correctly”.