One takeaway from the 2024 elections is the dizzying partisan gap between young men and women. Young men were fully 32 points more likely to vote Republican, a gender gap far larger than anything ever seen before. Given that people are increasingly disinclined to date and marry across political lines, this suggests a future of fewer marriages, fewer families, and increased loneliness. At worst, we could be headed for a South Korea-style future where young men and women despise each other, distrust each other, and have no interest in starting families with each other.
Serious stuff, and there’s no silver bullet for it. But I’d offer a modest proposal, and not in the Swiftian sense, for bringing young men and women together: mixed-gender sports.
Mixed-gender sports are not a new concept. Mixed-doubles tennis has been part of the pro tennis circuit for generations. The last two Summer Olympics featured mixed-gender relays in both swimming and track and field. And Ohio State hosted a mixed-gender college golf tournament in 2021, with male and female golfers competing together in two-person teams.
Presently, however, mixed-gender sports are virtually absent from the U.S. high school and college scene. And that’s a shame. Besides being fun to play and watch, mixed-gender sports could bridge the Generation Z gender divide. After all, sports can be powerful stuff — many adults rank school sports as among their most cherished memories. Thus, it’s reasonable to think that young adults may feel closer to the opposite sex if their formative athletic glories depended in part on the sweat and effort of the opposite sex. At a minimum, high school boys whose athletic achievements depended in part on female teammates should be more resistant to the gross misogyny of incel culture or Andrew Tate-style influencers. That would be a win in and of itself.
While mixed-gender sports may have a vaguely progressive feel, they actually promote conservative views of sex and gender by reifying the real biological differences between men and women. After all, there’s a reason why mixed-gender relay teams must have equal numbers of each. If you watch a mixed-gender relay or mixed-doubles tennis match, it’s clear the athletes have equal levels of grit and ferocity, but it’s equally clear that male and female bodies are not interchangeable. I’ve trained with male and female Olympians. Trust me: There is nothing interchangeable about them.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINERÂ Â
Embracing mixed-gender sports does not mean radically reconfiguring sports teams or erasing male and female divisions. It just means selectively adding mixed-gender events, which could be easily worked into the existing sports calendar. For example, high school and college track or swimming could easily add mixed-gender relays, just as the Olympics does. High school and college tennis could include mixed doubles, just as professional tennis does. Mixed-gender golf tournaments, such as Ohio State’s, also deserve a closer look.
With all the social forces driving young men and women apart, it’s worth highlighting even modest proposals that could help bring them together. Mixed-gender sports is one such proposal.
Joshua L. Sohn is an attorney and writer in Washington. He competed on the Stanford University track team and was the 18th American in the Boston Marathon.