Fascinating research from “The Eternally Radical Idea.” Worth reading Chapin Lenthall-Cleary’s entire article here.

Amazingly, it turns out that men are often more tolerant of the opposite side than women are of their own side.

The data comes from FIRE’s annual College Free Speech Rankings, which is designed to gauge the state of free speech on American college campuses as well as student attitudes toward free speech. This includes gauging students’ feelings towards allowing various hypothetical speakers on campus, which we can break down by various characteristics. When evaluating the data based on gender, some shocking trends arise.

Men are, on average, significantly more tolerant and less censorious than women. By contrast, while political affiliation makes people more biased towards speakers on their side, it affects their overall willingness to let speakers speak, regardless of ideology, very little. However, regardless of party or ideology, men are significantly more tolerant than women, so much so that the gender difference dominates the ideology difference. This effect is even more acute in the extremes: men are over 3.5 times more likely than women to be “perfectly tolerant” of opposing views — meaning they would definitely allow any campus speakers, including those they disagree with.

Further,

And while left-wing women are stereotypically seen as being uniquely censorial, the reality is that this tendency applies to all groups of women, regardless of ideology.

And this:

Democrat-leaning independents are more tolerant of both sides than Democrats, and Republican-leaning independents are more tolerant of both sides than Republicans. Again, however, we see the stark effects of gender on these measurements: male Democrats are more tolerant of right-wing speakers than female Republicans.

And this:

Many women display extreme censorial attitudes, and only towards right-wing speakers.

What is causing this? 

My suspicion, corroborated by other research, is that women have much stronger general opposition to speech that may cause emotional discomfort and a preference for harmoniousness.

One of the above sources was a 2021 Psychology Today Article. Here an excerpt:

• In a 2019 study, 59% of women said protecting free speech was less important than promoting an inclusive society, while 71% of men felt opposite.
• Two recent studies of online adults revealed that women were more censorious than men.

At “The Eternally Radical Idea,” Chapin Lenthall-Cleary adds this commentary:

Suppose you’re a controversial left-wing speaker. Who do you think would be more likely to let you voice your opinions on campus: a slightly conservative man or a democratic socialist woman?

Now suppose you’re a controversial right-wing speaker. Who do you think would be more likely to let you voice your opinions on campus: a slightly liberal man or a somewhat conservative woman?

It may seem obvious that, regardless of gender, someone with a similar ideology would be more tolerant of your views. But recent data gathered by FIRE suggests that’s not always the case.

Amazingly, it turns out that men are often more tolerant of the opposite side than women are of their own side.

The data comes from FIRE’s annual College Free Speech Rankings, which is designed to gauge the state of free speech on American college campuses as well as student attitudes toward free speech.