ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Monday, February 24, 2025

Conservative Women Are Happier Than Liberal Women

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Last week, Vice President Vance, in his speech at CPAC, made his case for returning to traditional Judeo-Christian values and, for men, traditional masculinity. For women, traditional femininity. 

And he explained to the audience and the press why his faith in Jesus Christ as Savior is so important.

A recent study finds that "Young conservative women are three times as likely to report having a happy life than liberal women---and the key factors driving the happiness gap  are faith and family."

After our national trek through the darkness and confusion of so-called "progressivism," the light is being turned on.  

A closer look is very encouraging.

Be informed, not misled.

The first paragraph of our Declaration of Independence begins with "When in the Course of human events... "

The second paragraph begins with, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

What is a man?

During his remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last Thursday, Vice President JD Vance explained what he termed the “fundamental tenet” of his Catholic faith.

“I believe the fundamental tenet of the Christian faith … is that the Son of God became man, He died, and then He raised himself from the dead,” Vance said at the annual conservative event, which this year was held in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C."

“I think one lesson that flows from that is that we shouldn’t fear death,” he continued. “Of course, death is a very bad thing … but there are many more terrible things than just losing one’s life. And importantly, you could lose one’s soul.”

Vance said, "And I think whether it’s fighting for the unborn or fighting for peace and security for our citizens,” he said, “I want us to be the kind of society where my kids can grow up to be virtuous young people … good young Christians.”

“That’s what our public policy is trying to do,” he said. “Creating the space where moms and dads can raise their children in their faith to become good young people who believe the things that I do.”

Also in the conversation, Vance said that he thinks “our culture sends a message to young men that you should suppress every masculine urge, you should try to cast aside your family. You should try to suppress what makes you a young man in the first place.”

“My message to young men is don’t allow this broken culture to send you a message that you’re a bad person because you’re a man."

He indicated that he thinks the current “cultural message … wants to turn everybody, whether male or female, into androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same.”   

“We actually think God made male and female for a purpose, and we want you guys to thrive as young men, and as young women, and we’re going to help with our public policy to make it possible to do that,” he said. 

Conservative Women Are 3 Times Happier Than Liberal Peers.

The Signal, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, says, "Young conservative women are three times as likely to report having a happy life than liberal women—and the key factors driving the happiness gap are faith and family, a new study has found. Attending church together is twice as important to marital happiness than regular date nights, the same researchers conclude."

In all, 37% of conservative women say they are “completely satisfied” with their life, compared to 12% of liberal women and 28% of moderates, according to data that researchers Brad Wilcox and Grant Bailey of the Institute for Family Studies drew from the 2024 American Family Survey.

What accounts for these vast differences in life satisfaction? The science pinpoints two factors: marriage and church attendance.

“Conservative women ages 18-40 are married at rates that are 20 percentage points higher than liberal women in the same age group. And whereas over half of conservative women in this age group attend church weekly, only 12% of their liberal peers do,” writes Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and Bailey. “Together, these two factors account for about half the ideological gap among young women in a multivariate analysis of life satisfaction that included controls for factors like race, education, and income.”

Among young women between the ages of 18 and 40, only conservatives boast of an outright majority who are married (51%) and attend church weekly (55%). Liberals are most likely to be single (40%) or cohabiting (17%) and to attend church seldom or never (65%).

The Signal concludes with these thoughts:

Conversely, 29% of liberal women report feeling lonely a few times a week or more, compared to only 11% of conservative women and 19% of moderates. The survey finds “a large part of this loneliness gap comes from different rates of marriage and church attendance,” reports the study. “Adding controls for marriage and church attendance, ideology becomes less important, with marriage being the strongest predictor of feeling less lonely.”

Young white liberals are the most likely demographic to have been diagnosed with a mental illness, according to a study that found 46% of white liberals between the ages of 18 and 29 had been diagnosed with a mental disorder, compared to 21% of conservatives the same age.

Some analysts have tied higher rates of liberal depression to progressives’ tendency to engage in catastrophic thinking, a cognitive distortion that predicts the chance of worst-case scenarios as improbably high. But Wilcox and Bailey say the Right-Left “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.”

Since loneliness derives from the Left’s estrangement from purpose-giving institutions, “any efforts to bridge this ideological gap in young women’s emotional well-being will seemingly require not only a change in thinking but also a renewal of young liberal women’s connection to America’s core institutions—family and faith,” they conclude.

But the two institutions of marriage and religion work best together, they find.

Takeaway.

Abraham Lincoln said, "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm."

Our Declaration of Independence declares our right to "pursue happiness."

Biblical truth and faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior provide it, even in the darkest times.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.