Why Conservative Women Report Being the Happiest—and How You Can Be, Too
October 4, 2022
The share of American men and women who are married today is at a record low: 45 percent. That's one of the headlines emerging from the 2022 American Family Survey (AFS), out this week from YouGov and the Deseret News.
You may think this is good news, especially if you take your marching orders from the academy or the media. We're inundated with articles about how marriage is an outdated institution, a relic of a patriarchal past. A 2019 article in the Atlantic sought to inform readers of "What you gain when you lose a spouse," while the New York Times explored an America "Beyond Marriage." A recent story in Bloomberg assured us that "women who stay single and don't have kids are getting richer" than their peers who are married with children, leaving them free to enjoy a "deep sense of satisfaction" from their jobs, relish the "financial freedoms" that come with being single and child-free, and spend their disposable income flying around the world. As one woman put it, "I love my life and feel very fulfilled."
