Liberal women lonelier, more unhappy than conservative counterparts: American Family Survey

A new study found that liberal women are more lonely and unhappy than their conservative counterparts. Only 12 percent of liberal women between the ages of 18 and 40 reported feeling satisfied with their lives, compared to 37 percent of conservative women who said they felt the same way, according to a recent American Family Survey.

The results also revealed that liberal women are nearly three times more likely than conservatives to report experiencing loneliness at least a few times per week. Marriage rates are also higher among conservative women. Liberal women reported being married at a rate of 31 percent, while conservative women reported being married at a rate of at least 51 percent.

Conservative women are also more inclined to prioritize family and church attendance as well as accepting different roles between men and women.

Brad Wilcox, a fellow of the Institute for Family Studies and professor at the University of Virginia, told Fox News that conservative women are less likely to believe they are victims of "larger structural realities or forces."

"They're also less likely to catastrophize about public events and concerns and more likely to think of themselves as captains of their own fate," he said. "This ideological divide does not appear to be just a consequence of negative thinking; it also seems to flow from the fact that 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."

Wilcox added that "lower levels of marriage and churchgoing among liberal women may also have a hand in their elevated reports of loneliness, which, in turn, diminishes their odds of being happy."

The American Family Survey questioned 3,000 American women to come to its findings, which was conducted in 2024 but released earlier this month.