Why Gen Z Men Feel Like Losers

When a man – especially a young one – believes he’s a loser, there’s often very little anyone can say to convince him otherwise. For many Gen Z men, that loser mentality has perhaps been the largest issue when it comes to dating.

A 2022 Pew Research survey found that over half of Gen Z adults in the US reported that they’re single, compared to 34% of women. Throughout the vast majority of human history, the advice for finding a good partner as a man was almost directly correlated with your level of success. Most countries imposed legal and social restrictions on what women could and couldn’t do: Women couldn’t own or inherit land; women couldn’t sign a lease or vote in elections; and, even as societies industrialized, women were still barred from higher education, professional careers, and equal pay. In the US, women couldn’t apply for a credit card without their husband’s or father’s co-signature until 1974.

Thus, throughout human history, women relied on men for financial security. Thus, men needed only maximize their success to find a large pool of women eager to marry them.

By the turn of the 21st century, things had changed.