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Progress on women’s rights faces growing misogyny online.
The so-called manosphere has been festering online for well over a decade, promoting misogynistic and at times violent rhetoric. At a time when the European Union has increasingly addressed gender inequality through policy, manosphere narratives fuelled by disinformation and AI are spreading, particularly among youth.
Why fact-check the manosphere?
The manosphere and incels – those practicing involuntary celibacy – have gained public attention this year with the TV series Adolescence, and also through scandals of misogynistic influencer Andrew Tate, who has faced various charges of rape and human trafficking.
At the same time, the EU launched this year its roadmap for women’s rights aimed at bolstering women’s equity in society.
But gender equality is not implicit throughout the bloc.
As the far-right has made gains in Europe, a UN Secretary General’s report warned that the expansion of the manosphere coincides with growing conservatism among young men, meaning we may be seeing more of this rhetoric.
We chose to fact-check three overarching narratives that persistently come up in varying forms that attack current policy developments in the EU.
Claim: European policies are pushing an anti-male agenda.
Policies supporting women are not giving them an unfair advantage – rather helping them catch up in areas like the workplace and positions of power that remain dominated by men.
The employment rate for men stood at 80 per cent in 2023, while it was at 70 percent for women, according to a 2025 report on Gender Equality in the EU.
Women on average also earned about 12 per cent less than their male counterparts in 2023, according to provisional EU data.
In government, women made up just 32 per cent of seats in both chambers of national parliaments in the EU in 2020, according to a 2021 report.
Women are not the only ones to benefit in a more equal workforce.
The European Commission reported that “the economic loss due to the gender employment gap amounts to €370 billion per year.”
Claim: Men are really struggling to express their sexuality and date
Laws, like the Istanbul Convention that came into effect in the EU in October 2023, are designed to combat violence against women and gender inequality.
While there isn’t a standard definition of rape and consent across Europe, by 2023, there were 20 countries that included consent in defining rape, according to a recent study in the International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice.
Although matters of consent and equality can be viewed as barriers for men expressing their sexuality, the need to protect women is unquestionable.
A survey of women in the EU released in 2024 found that one in six women in the have experienced sexual violence in their adulthood.
Furthermore, it found that more than 4 per cent of women had experienced sexual harassment at work in the last 12 months, and 31 per cent during adulthood.
Yet these policies still face resistance from anti-gender movements and conservative religious groups.
Claim: Amid calls for a return to “traditional” family structures, the rise of women in the workplace is to blame for declining birthrates.
According to an OECD report, unemployment rates – for both sexes – and housing costs are major factors contributing to low fertility rates.
The report also found that young adults aged 20 to 29 increasingly lack financial independence, with 50 percent of them still living with their parents in 2023 compared to just 45 percent in 2006. This means that they are having to delay starting families of their own.
The EU has tried to address some of the imbalances and economic insecurities with the 2019 work-life balance directive, which among many policies, introduced a minimum paternity leave and provides for measures to support working women who wish to start a family.
Still, the gap between men and women’s paid leave is significant in the EU, with many men offered only the minimum leave while women get much more.
The imbalance is not limited to the workforce.
When comparing how each sex spends their minutes through the day, women have far less leisure time and do more unpaid work than men, according to the OECD.
For example, in Greece, women conduct on average 259 minutes of unpaid work – such as household chores or childcare – per day while men only see 95 minutes of unpaid work. Even in Denmark where men contribute 186 minutes of unpaid labour per day, women still top them at 243 minutes.
Closing these gaps in labour would result in significant economic benefits for everyone. The European Institute for Gender Equality estimates that by 2050, it could increase the EU’s GDP per capita by 6 to 10 per cent, which amounts to 1.95 to 3.15 trillion euros.
Additional deliverables: For this monthly fact check, I also research and produce a much longer in-depth report for Euranet journalists to supplement their reporting on the topic, as well produce a pre-recorded radio story of the public-facing article.