Highlights
- The truths about marriage and motherhood couldn’t be clearer, or more counter-cultural Post This
- Married women with children are actually happier than their single and childless counterparts, despite the prevailing narrative to the contrary. Post This
- Per the 2022 General Social Survey, 40% of married women between the ages of 18 & 55 with children report being “very happy” with their lives, compared to 22% of unmarried women w/ no children & 17% of single mothers. Post This
A viral TikTok video doesn’t pull any punches in depicting the so-called negatives of marriage and motherhood for young women. The video, that has been racking up millions of views, shows a Generation Z woman seeming to accept a marriage proposal before switching to a series of shorts showing the same woman toiling away in domestic drudgery — washing dishes, caring for a newborn baby, and cleaning the house. The clip ends with the woman rejecting the proposal, daunted by the future life of domestic servitude that just flashed before her eyes.
This is simply one addition to a long line of recent memes that deride marriage and motherhood, a trend that plays into a popular narrative. But is all this negative coverage of marriage and motherhood — primarily emanating from academics, journalists, and online influencers — an accurate reflection of reality?
The answer is no. The truths about marriage and motherhood couldn’t be clearer, or more counter-cultural: married women with children are actually happier than their single and childless counterparts, despite the prevailing narrative to the contrary. Drawing on data from America’s premier social barometer, the 2022 General Social Survey, 40% of married women between the ages of 18 and 55 with children report being “very happy” with their lives, compared to 22% of unmarried women with no children and 17% of single mothers.
Continue reading at Unherd . . . .
