What conservative women know − and liberals don't − about happiness | Opinion
Progressives have pulled way from two major institutions associated with happiness − marriage and faith. It's not surprising then that many of them can't find what they're looking for in life.
Portrait of Nicole RussellNicole Russell
USA TODAY
One of the weirdest reactions I saw after President Donald Trump was reelected in November involved videos on social media of young liberal women in hysterics over the results of our democratic process. Some even vowed to shave their heads and swear off having sex with men.
I don't remember losing my mind when Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. I was disappointed, but angry and depressed? No.
Turns out, there's data behind this phenomenon. New research shows that young conservative women are much happier than liberal women. The findings are about far more than political ideology. They demonstrate fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats.
According to the 2024 American Family Survey, liberal women ages 18-40 are far less likely than conservative women to say they are happy. Only 12% of liberal women said they are “completely satisfied” with life compared with 37% of conservative women. Self-described moderates also are happier than liberals, with 28% agreeing that they are fully satisfied with life.
Grant Bailey, a research associate of the Institute for Family Studies, and Brad Wilcox, a senior fellow at the institute, investigated "how marriage, churchgoing, and loneliness help to account for the happiness gap between liberal and conservative women."
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Bailey and Wilcox make a strong case that conservative women are happier because they make different life choices. They are more likely to get married, have babies and embrace a strong faith − all things that make them feel less lonely. And people who don't feel lonely are more likely to be happy.
Why are young liberal women so unhappy?
The late commentator Andrew Breitbart said, "Politics is downstream from culture." That idea made me wonder if a woman's level of happiness pushes her to the political left or the right. Does she choose to be a liberal in an attempt to address her pre-existing unhappiness? Or does her progressive point of view lead to unhappiness because of the life choices she makes as a liberal?
In 2023, research published by the University of Chicago found that "being married is the most important differentiator" between happiness and unhappiness. In fact, there's a 30 percentage point gap in happiness between those who are married and those who aren't.
In 2023, research published by the University of Chicago found that "being married is the most important differentiator" between happiness and unhappiness.
At the same time, marriage rates factored by political party have changed drastically over the years.
In 1940, about 80% of both Republicans and Democrats ages 30-50 were married.
By 1999, that rate had dropped to 71% for Republicans but was only 56% for Democrats.
And in 2024, less than half (49%) of Democrats were married, with a marriage rate of 67% among Republicans.
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The drastic decline of marriage among Democrats has coincided with another major shift in U.S. society: Church membership started to decline dramatically in 2000. Now, only 12% of younger liberal women attend church each week while more than half of conservative women do.
So, progressives have pulled way from two major institutions strongly associated with happiness − marriage and faith. It's not surprising then that many of them can't find what they're looking for in life.
"Liberal young women are less likely to be integrated into core American institutions − specifically marriage and religion − that lend meaning, direction, and a sense of solidarity to women’s lives," Bailey and Wilcox wrote in their analysis.
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Single women tend to be happier than single men
To be fair, other research has shown that single women are much happier than single men, reporting more satisfaction with life in general and in their relationships. Does that mean young progressive women tend to be unhappy but progressive men are really unhappy? Maybe.
I've been married, and now I'm divorced. I have a robust faith and feel satisfied in many areas of my life. My faith is an integral reason why. I can see where marriage to the right man might create additional happiness, but when I was married, I didn't feel happy.
And while research shows that married people tend to be happier overall, that's the case only if they have a satisfying marriage. A single person may well be happier than someone in a bad marriage.
The pursuit of happiness − a right outlined in the Declaration of Independence − can mean a lot of things. In 1776, the right to follow one's own path toward happiness was foundational to liberty. Now, happiness is all that Americans want to pursue. And much of our culture is geared toward individual happiness in the moment − grab what you think will make you happy now.
Yet, Americans, especially young people, are less happy than ever. Maybe the problem is how we are pursuing happiness.
Progressives believe that it's government's job to deliver "justice, dignity and peace for all people." Conservatives value such ideals but tend to believe that government and politics can't possibly deliver on such lofty goals.
Maybe that is why conservative women are happier than liberal women. They don't rely on politics or government to make them happy, but rely instead on something far greater than themselves.
Nicole Russell is a columnist at USA TODAY and a mother of four who lives in Texas. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @russell_nm.
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
They fold it thirteen times. 🇺🇸
Not to make it smaller.
To make it mean something.
The first fold is life.
The second is the life that does not end.
The third is the veteran — the one who gave years so the rest of us could keep ours. 🎖️
The fourth is trust.
A nation handing its weaker hours to people willing to be strong.
The fifth is the country they swore to.
The sixth is the heart. ❤️
Where the oath lives when the cameras are gone.
The seventh is the uniform.
Every branch. Every name.
The eighth is the valley.
The dark they walked into so morning could still find us.
The ninth is the mother.
The first person who ever taught them what it meant to
protect someone.
The tenth is the father
who watched a child leave and learned how long a driveway can feel.
The eleventh is the ancient seal.
The twelfth is forever. ✨
Then the last fold.
Stars on top. ⭐
No stripe left showing.
Only the field they fought under.
A triangle like the old hats of Washington’s men.
A ...
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Good morning, digital neighbors! Blessed Sabbath to all the Keepers of the Covenant of Israel, children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Happy Saturday to all the rest of us adopted children of God. The Book of Psalms holds a special place in the spirituality of Judaism and Christianity. It is our shared book of prayer for those seeking God. While most psalms are attributed to David, there are many authors, and it is a collective book of prayer that contains some of the most human and honest statements in Scripture. Even for those who never bother with Scripture, they probably know Psalm 23 and the imagery of God as the Good Shepherd.
What I love most about the psalms is that they are not sugar-coated in their honesty and humility toward God. They cover the full range of human responses to God and His humble movement in our daily lives. Psalms express joy, sorrow, praise, contrition, longing, and questioning with God. The God of Israel, the Father of glory, can handle whatever humanity throws at Him. ...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
