Nearly One in Five Australian Men Say Violence Against Feminism Is Legitimate, Study Finds

Nearly one in five Australian men believe it is legitimate to use violence to resist feminism, according to research from the University of Melbourne. The figure, 19.4 per cent of men surveyed, made violent anti-feminism the most widely supported form of extremist attitude recorded in the study.

The finding, first published by the university in 2024, has taken on fresh urgency after new, related research from the same institution found that young Australians hold significantly more hostile attitudes towards women than older generations, and that those attitudes are now the strongest known predictor of support for violent extremism.

The Data Behind the 19.4 Per Cent Figure

The original 2024 study, led by Dr Sara Meger of the University of Melbourne, surveyed Australians on their support for various forms of violent extremism. It found that 19.4 per cent of men agreed it was legitimate to use violence against feminism, and more than 30 per cent of all respondents agreed or slightly agreed with hostile sexist statements.

Dr Meger said the results showed security and policing agencies needed to treat misogynistic attitudes as seriously as other markers of radicalisation. She and Professor Kate Reynolds previewed findings from a newer national survey in March 2026, ahead of its full publication, based on responses from 1,122 young Australians aged 13 to 17 and 2,307 adults.

It found that 17 per cent of all Australians agreed feminism should be resisted with violence, and that between 25 and 30 per cent of boys aged 13 to 17 expressed agreement with various forms of violent extremism. Roughly 40 per cent of boys in that age group said they believed women lie about domestic and sexual violence.

Misogyny 'The Single Strongest Predictor'

Dr Meger's 2026 research found hostile attitudes towards women outweighed race, religion, nationalism and political affiliation as predictors of support for violent extremism. Hostile views were 'the single strongest predictor of support for violent extremism', she said, adding that the issue was now a matter of national security rather than social policy alone.

More than 500 Australian schoolteachers were also surveyed for the study. Some reported students citing the manosphere influencer Andrew Tate by name in class, and using his language to justify refusing instructions from female staff while complying with identical instructions from male colleagues.

The findings were later presented to Australia's Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, where Dr Meger testified that misogyny functions as a gateway into wider extremist ideologies. She told the commission that more than two thirds of the federal Department of Home Affairs' countering violent extremism caseload involved boys and men aged between 10 and 24.

The Viral Reaction Sparked by the Report's Release

The 2026 findings went viral this week on Threads, shared by the account youwanted.this in a post that had drawn more than 86,000 views. 'This is terrifying, depressing and heartbreaking,' the post read.

The reaction beneath it was immediate. One commenter asked how much of the shift was 'social media driven', while another argued young people were more likely to hold hostile views because they had 'grown up with an internet that glorifies hating women'.

Other replies focused on the scale of the problem. One commenter said the report reflected a wider pattern of women being 'raped, abused and killed', while another questioned the framing of the findings, asking whether the data was really about 'young people' at all, given the sharpest gaps appeared among young men specifically.

Australia's domestic intelligence agency, ASIO, does not currently classify attacks on women as terrorism, meaning cases driven primarily by misogyny can fall outside formal counter-extremism responses. Dr Meger's 2026 report recommended five policy changes, including funding prevention programmes for children from the age of six and formally recognising misogyny within counter-extremism frameworks.

The findings carry weight beyond Australia. The online influencer ecosystem researchers link to rising hostility towards women, including figures such as Andrew Tate, reaches teenage audiences in the UK and elsewhere, meaning the radicalisation pathway identified in this research is unlikely to be confined to one country.

The findings suggest the radicalisation pathway identified in Australia is already operational in UK online spaces, and British security agencies would be wise to take note.