A Wall Street Journal social media video examining why young men are exiting the workforce has drawn a sharp backlash from MAGA-aligned commentators and lawmakers.

The video, posted by Mary Julia Koch, the Journal's associate editor for its Free Expression newsletter, highlighted that women now hold more payrolled jobs than men -- a milestone Labor Department data show first occurred at the end of 2019. Koch pointed to automation and offshoring in male-dominated industries such as manufacturing and construction, and noted that a growing share of men are remaining at home.

The gender gaps the video described have been building for decades. The labor force participation rate for men aged 25 to 54 has slipped from above 96 percent in the late 1960s to roughly 89 percent in recent years, a retreat Nicholas Eberstadt of the American Enterprise Institute chronicled in his 2016 book "Men Without Work." Men also now account for roughly four in ten students on U.S. college campuses, and women have earned the majority of bachelor's degrees since the early 1980s.

"But we can fix this," Koch suggested. "We can encourage more men to enter education, health care, and administration, just as women were encouraged to pursue careers in STEM."

The fields she singled out are among those where women already make up the majority of workers, while men remain concentrated in construction, production and transportation occupations.

Koch also called for expanding vocational training and apprenticeships for men.

The proposals, however, met a hostile reception from MAGA voices, who criticized both the video's ideas and Koch's own background. She is the daughter of David Koch, the late Koch Industries executive and prominent Republican megadonor.

The flare-up comes amid intensified political attention to young men, a group exit polls showed backing Donald Trump by double digits in the 2024 election, and as the Trump administration pursues tariffs it describes as a way to bring manufacturing jobs back to American soil -- the same industries at the center of the offshoring debate.

"Every American institution -- from media, to universities, to Hollywood, to the corporate world -- has spent the last three decades working to purge young white men from entry level jobs," Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) wrote. "Now, they act like it's a big mystery why there are significantly less young men in the workforce."

MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson was similarly scathing in a post on X.

"Hey guys a billionaire heiress whose family got filthy rich offshoring American manufacturing jobs and turning the Midwest into the worlds biggest meth lab has a condescending girl-boss lecture from her adult daycare about how men are disappointing her," Johnson wrote.

Like Gill, Johnson argued that "Princess Koch's conclusion is that men don't work hard enough. Not that millions of men had their livelihoods destroyed by DEI policies promoting untalented and unqualified women and 'minorities' like her. Not that HR Karens have killed productivity and energy in the workplace. Not that male-dominated professions have been systematically sent overseas to 3rd world slave labor markets by the millions."