Research: How the manosphere is showing up at work

Men who consume tradwife or manosphere content frequently are much more likely to hold outdated beliefs

• Men who view tradwife or manosphere content frequently are over three times more likely to agree:
  • Men are naturally better suited for leadership (58% of frequent viewers vs. 19% of infrequent viewers)
  • Women are too emotional for high-pressure roles (50% vs. 14%)

Even men who don’t like the content may be influenced by it

• Among men who don’t find tradwife content appealing, frequent viewers are about twice as likely to agree with outdated statements about women:
  • Women are too emotional (32% of frequent viewers vs. 14% of infrequent viewers)
  • Men are better suited for leadership than women (38% vs. 17%)
  • Women should put family before paid work (37% vs. 22%)

Outdated beliefs are showing up in the workplace

• 6 in 10 employees have heard manosphere-coded comments at work.

Women who hear these comments more often also receive more gender-biased feedback at work

• Women who hear these comments more often are about 7x more likely to be told they’re too emotional (26% who have heard 3 or more of these comments vs. 4% who have heard none).
• They are also 4x more likely to hear they’re not seen as a leader (21% who have heard 3 or more of these comments vs. 5% who have heard none).

And the beliefs reach the people deciding who advances

• 78% of senior leader men who frequently see tradwife content believe men are naturally better suited for leadership, compared with 57% of senior leader men and 42% of men overall.

Research does not bear these ideas out: companies tend to do better with women in leadership

• Better market performance: When a woman CEO replaces a man, return on assets rises 3% within two years. Companies with women at 15% or more of senior management have 18% higher return on equity than those with fewer than 10%. Companies with women well represented in leadership often see more innovation and more patents.
• More ethical choices: Women CEOs often make more ethical decisions, with more transparent accounting and less corporate risk-taking, linked to better market performance.
• Beneficial leadership style: Women are more likely than men to be “transformational leaders” who inspire and motivate their employees. And women may be less likely than men to act on their emotions when leading.

If these views discourage women from paid work, the costs may extend beyond the workplace

• In the economy: Keeping women from working outside the home dampens economic growth. If women's workforce participation were to reach the levels seen in peer countries, the U.S. economy could grow an additional 4.2%.
• At home: Couples with less egalitarian gender roles tend to have higher divorce rates. Children with working mothers are as happy as those whose moms stay home.
• For men’s mental health: Young men who engage with manosphere content report worse mental health than those who do not.

Here’s what we can do to combat this thinking:

• Don’t let statements pass. Engage with sexist rhetoric, rather than dismissing it. Ongoing conversations and counter-messaging can shift these beliefs.
• Share this data with men in your life, especially “men in the middle” who aren’t allies yet but could be convinced.
• If you’re a parent, talk to your boys from a young age about equality and supporting women, so their beliefs are formed before the manosphere finds them.
• Once your sons are old enough to be online, proactively ask what they’re seeing, what they think of it, and share your own views. Experts say frequent, honest conversations with trusted adults can help boys distance themselves from sexist beliefs.
• If you’re a senior leader, especially a man, call out sexism and model fairness in hiring, raises, promotions, and performance reviews. Male employees take cues from men at the top.
• If you’re a working woman, keep receipts. Track wins and outcomes so you have specifics to counter gendered feedback about your leadership potential or emotionality.

Methodology

These findings are from an online survey of 2,984 U.S. adults aged 18 and older, conducted by Lean In on the Qualtrics platform from May 5 to May 19, 2026. The survey was nationally representative by age, gender, race/ethnicity, and region. The margin of error is ±2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Margins of error for subgroups are larger — for the smallest groups reported here, up to ±9 percentage points.

Notes

1. Respondents were asked how often in the past 12 months they had seen online content promoting “traditional roles for women (e.g., being a wife, mother, and supporting a partner’s career)” and “traditional roles for men (e.g., being the primary provider, being assertive or dominant),” on a five-point scale from “never” to “very often.” Respondents counted as having seen the content gave any answer other than “never.” The figure is a composite of the two items, reporting respondents who gave any answer other than “never” to either.
2. Unpublished IPSOS/King’s College data, 2026. For other findings from this dataset, see H. Chung et al., Mind the Gaps: Global Attitudes Toward Gender Equality in 2026 (Ipsos MORI, 2026), https://www.kcl.ac.uk/assets/news/iwd-2026-global-charts-final.pdf.
3. Agreement combines “agree strongly” and “agree somewhat” from a five-point scale.
4. Frequent viewers are a composite of the two items, comprising respondents who see tradwife or manosphere content “often” or “very often”; infrequent viewers see both “rarely” or “never.”
5. Based on exposure to tradwife content alone; Respondents were asked how much content promoting traditional roles for women appeals to them personally, on a five-point scale from “a great deal” to “not at all.” Men who do not find the content appealing are those who selected any option other than “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
6. Employed respondents were asked whether they had heard any of seven gender-normative views expressed at their workplace or work-related events in the past 12 months, in meetings, on Slack, or in casual conversation: “men are naturally better suited for leadership”; “men should be the primary earners for their families”; “women are too emotional for high-pressure roles”; “diversity efforts lower standards”; “women’s success has come at men’s expense”; “women should put their families before paid work”; and “men today are unfairly disadvantaged.” The figure counts respondents who heard at least one of the seven. Base is employees working full- or part-time.
7. Compares women who heard three or more of the seven views at work with women who heard none.
8. Senior leaders are respondents who already hold a top executive position, or who hold a C-suite, VP, or SVP role.
9. Sandra Betton et al., “Does Distinction Disguise Discrimination? A Look at Female and Non-White CEO Performance” (SSRN working paper, March 21, 2023), https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4639320.
10. Julia Dawson, Richard Kersley, and Stefano Natella, The CS Gender 3000: The Reward for Change (Zurich: Credit Suisse Research Institute, September 2016), 4, 23, 25, https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/csri-gender-3000.pdf.
11. J. Chen, W. S. Leung, and K. P. Evans, “Female Board Representation, Corporate Innovation and Firm Performance,” Journal of Empirical Finance 48 (September 2018): 236–54, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jempfin.2018.07.003.
12. Mustafa A. Dah et al., “Do Female CEOs Lead More Ethical Firms? ESG and Corporate Impact,” International Review of Financial Analysis 105 (September 2025): article 104408, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2025.104408; Simon S. M. Ho et al., “CEO Gender, Ethical Leadership, and Accounting Conservatism,” Journal of Business Ethics 127, no. 2 (2015): 351–70.
13. Alice H. Eagly, Mary C. Johannesen-Schmidt, and Marloes L. van Engen, “Transformational, Transactional, and Laissez-Faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-Analysis Comparing Women and Men,” Psychological Bulletin 129, no. 4 (2003): 569–91, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.569.
14. Ivona Hideg, Tanja Hentschel, and Winny Shen, “Research: How Anxiety Shapes Men’s and Women’s Leadership Differently,” Harvard Business Review, September 16, 2024, https://hbr.org/2024/09/research-how-anxiety-shapes-mens-and-womens-leadership-differently.
15. Sheryl Sandberg, “The Secret to a Strong Economy Is Women,” Financial Times, March 6, 2025, https://www.ft.com/content/026084c6-da2a-4540-94c2-1becc136e713?syn-25a6b1a6=1.
16. Daniela Bellani, Gøsta Esping-Andersen, and Léa Pessin, “When Equity Matters for Marital Stability: Comparing German and U.S. Couples,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 35, no. 9 (2018): 1273–98, https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407517709537.
17. Dina Gerdeman, “Kids of Working Moms Grow into Happy Adults,” Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, July 16, 2018, https://www.library.hbs.edu/working-knowledge/kids-of-working-moms-grow-into-happy-adults.
18. Krista Fisher, Simon Rice, and Zac Seidler, Young Men’s Health in a Digital World (Movember Institute of Men’s Health, April 2025), https://us.movember.com/movember-institute/masculinities-report.
19. Claire Verney and Idil Mignon, “The Manosphere: Preventing Harmful Attitudes in Young Men and Boys,” DVACT-PAI, May 14, 2025, https://www.dvact.org/post/the-manosphere-preventing-harmful-attitudes-youngmen.
20. Verney and Mignon, “The Manosphere.”
21. Alex Morris et al., “Status, Fear, and Solitude: Men and Gender Equality at the Top,” Deloitte Insights, April 8, 2019, https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/diversity-equity-inclusion/male-perspective-on-gender-equality-and-leadership.html.