It was a classic discussion, during an ordinary day at the office. Marylie, 23, discusses the issue of gender identity with colleagues her age, believing that a transgender woman should be considered a woman, “period”. But in the open space, a handful of employees in their forties tick, questioning his initial premise. The debate is neither heated nor violent – but the feminist activist remains marked by “this barrier” which separates them. In the privacy of the family home, it was after a parent-child argument on the need for actions of civil disobedience to act on global warming that Esther, 18, was struck by the same observation.
And on the day of the presidential election, it was by refraining from going to the polls that Gabriel*, 24, felt “perfectly out of step” with his parents’ generation, for whom voting remains a “top priority”. Asked about the reality of the “fractures” they see deepen with previous generations, these young people make the same observation: on certain themes, a gap separates them from their teachers, office colleagues or parents. “Without that we are irreconcilable. Far from it”, nuance Marylie.
Political disaffection
Often felt by different generations on subjects such as feminism, ecology, politics or the relationship to work, the course of this famous divide between the ages is indeed difficult to discern. “Today’s youth is anything but a monolithic block, it is essential to remember that,” says Frédéric Dabi, general director of opinion at Ifop and co-author of The divide (Arenas, 2021). The fact remains that, on certain themes, the break seems clear. On the political level, first, the researcher observes a “large-scale movement” accentuating the distrust of politicians, nourished among young people by two severe sentences: “All powerless”, and “What’s the use?”. A feeling that is reflected in the abstention figures: according to the results of an Ipsos survey carried out after the presidential election, 41% of 18-24 year olds abstained from voting in April 2022, compared to 26% of 50- 59 years old, and 20% of 60-69 year olds.
This disaffection with politics is accompanied by a form of ideological dilution: according to a study published in February 2022 by the Institut Montaigne, and carried out among 8,000 respondents aged 18 to 24, 64% of those polled are not on the left-right scale or say they do not feel close to any party – compared to 36% of baby boomers. Only 51% of young people also feel very attached to democracy, compared to 71% among their elders. “An orientation of values that is not only linked to age, but also to the demand of this generation for rapid and radical change, breaking with the compromise society in which we live today”, decrypts Olivier Galland, author of the study and 20 years old, the beautiful age? X-ray of French youth (Nathan, 2022). According to the sociologist, this phenomenon is also confirmed in the “minority but significant” rise among young people of a new tolerance with regard to certain violent behaviors to promote their struggles. According to his study, 22% of young people find it justified to use violence to protest, express their anger or defend their ideas, 49% find it acceptable or understandable to “confront elected officials to protest”, and 39% “clash with the police”.
Engaged generation
Because if young people seem disillusioned with regard to politics, they have not given up on defending their ideals. According to Frédéric Dabi, 18-24 year olds are even “personally very engaged” on certain subjects, such as discrimination, secularism or inequalities – questions on which there are, according to him, “real divisions” between young and old. “Today’s youth is very advanced on the concepts of automatic, sustained, systemic and intersectional discrimination, which was less the case in previous generations.” According to the study Generation, the great divide?,published in January 2022 by the Jean-Jaurès foundation, certain differences of opinion between generations can indeed be observed on societal subjects such as secularism, the reception of immigrants or the question of morals. Thus, 69% of people under 30 consider it normal for a homosexual couple to kiss or hold hands in public like a heterosexual couple, compared to 44% of people over 60, while 39% of young people consider that the public authorities must ensure that everyone can freely express and display their religious beliefs in the public space – compared to 10% of seniors. No less than 64% of those over 60 also believe that “today in France, we are no longer at home as before”, while only 44% of young people agree with this statement.
And yet… Beyond these differences and potential frictions, François-Xavier Demoures, co-author of the study, insists on one point: “What dominates in the relationship between generations is rather the values of solidarity and empathy: 51% of those under 30 say they are concerned about the living conditions of older people”, he recalls. Some fights, such as the fight against global warming, would even bring together young people and their elders: 87% of seniors say they are concerned and very concerned about environmental problems and their consequences, compared to 82% of young people. “There are concepts such as work, family, freedom, autonomy, cited both among young people and among the oldest as preferred values”, abounds Frédéric Dabi, who says he is “struck” by this homogenization of values between generations since the Covid crisis. According to Serge Guérin, a sociologist specializing in the issues of intergeneration, this “sensation of gap” between generations would therefore be explained above all by a magnifying effect on the form taken by certain activism, rather than on the substance. “Each generation thinks it can rebuild what the previous ones destroyed, badly defended or omitted.
By communicating more quickly via social networks, and sometimes more radically, today’s youth would therefore give this feeling of ‘teaching a lesson’, notes the sociologist. But that doesn’t mean she’s opposed to previous generations on all counts, or that she doesn’t learn from them.”