It’s possible there’s something about higher education itself that is radicalizing women politically and driving them away from the Church. Also, the decline of marriage has historically correlated with women adopting more progressive beliefs. Pew Research reported last year that the share of 40-year-olds who have never been married is at a historic high, and childbearing, partly as a result, is near a record low. Marriage and family are the most basic of all the “mediating institutions” in society that form individuals and buffer them from the state. With these institutions in decline, it’s inevitable that people, especially women, would look increasingly to the government for provision, protection, and influence.
One of the oldest features of Christianity is its appeal among women. Women swelled the ranks of the Early Church as it reflected how Jesus had treated them. He talked to women in public, defended them against accusers, and appeared to them first after His resurrection. All this at a time when women were widely treated as inferior to men.
Today, however, women in America seem to be abandoning Christian observance more quickly than men. Political scientist Ryan Burge, co-author of The Great De-Churching, recently shared survey data showing that college-educated men are now more likely to attend church weekly than college-educated women. In 2008, 36% of women with at least a four-year degree attended church weekly, compared with 34% of men with a degree. By 2023, just 27% of college-educated women attended church weekly, compared with 32% of men. Even among those who attended only some college, men led in church attendance. Only among those with a high school diploma or less are women still more likely than men to attend services.
Obviously, church attendance has declined significantly for both sexes. However, the drop among educated women is disproportionately high, and it coincides with the leftward lurch in how women identify, politically. Earlier this year, polling data from Gallup showed that the percentage of men ages 18 to 29 who identify as Republican had risen by double digits in the last decade. Over the same period, the share of young women—particularly white women—who identify themselves as politically progressive has skyrocketed.
According to an American Enterprise Institute survey last year, 46% of white Gen Z women identify as liberal, compared with just 28% of men.