Liberal Women Are America's Unhappiest, Study Finds

Progressive politics may promise empowerment, but for many liberal women, the result appears to be rising misery and isolation.

A growing body of data points to a clear trend: liberal women are statistically the most dissatisfied and mentally unwell demographic in the country, and experts say it may have more to do with worldview than circumstance.

According to a 2024 survey from the Institute for Family Studies (IFS), just 12% of liberal women aged 18-40 report being “completely satisfied” with their lives.

In contrast, 37% of conservative women in the same age group report full satisfaction, a difference that speaks volumes.

The findings come from the 2024 American Family Survey, which also shows that liberal women are two to three times more likely to say they are “not satisfied” with their lives.

Marriage and faith, two traditional anchors of community and stability, may play a key role in the satisfaction divide.

56% of conservative women in the study are married, while only 37% of liberal women are.

Church attendance reflects a similar gap: 53% of conservative women attend religious services weekly, compared to just 12% of liberal women.

That detachment from relational and spiritual communities may be fueling widespread loneliness.

Nearly 30% of liberal women report frequent loneliness, while only 11% of conservatives say the same.

“These women are lacking key support systems that help weather life’s inevitable challenges,” said Brad Wilcox, a senior fellow at IFS.

“We’ve seen in the research that conservative women tend to be more likely to embrace a sense of agency and to have the sense that they are not, in any way, the victim 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.”

This isn’t a new development. A 2020 Pew Research study found that 56% of young liberal white women had been diagnosed with a mental health condition, compared to fewer than 30% of moderate or conservative women.

Cognitive psychologist Jonathan Haidt traces the issue to a culture of “catastrophizing,” a mental habit of exaggerating negative outcomes, often amplified by social media and activist narratives.

“Once you equate words with guns, you’re closer to hell than salvation,” Haidt warned.

Journalist Matt Yglesias also noted the link between heavy social media use and negative cognitive patterns that mimic clinical depression:

“Mentally processing ambiguous events with a negative spin mirrors depression,” he explained.

That tendency toward pessimism has implications for electoral politics as well.

Political analyst Nate Silver argued that the Democratic Party’s messaging, shaped by its increasingly anxious, predominantly female base, may be turning off male voters.

“I think an underrated factor in the ‘how can Democrats win back young men’ debate is the effects of personality, which differ especially among younger voters,” Silver noted.

A cultural rejection of traditional roles may also be contributing to the crisis.

A 2024 analysis by Evie Magazine argued that dismissing marriage and motherhood as “oppressive” leaves many progressive women isolated from relationships that offer meaning, support, and long-term joy.

Haidt has argued that modern feminism’s emphasis on systemic oppression may backfire, trapping women in a cycle of resentment and helplessness.

“Feminism’s focus on systemic oppression can backfire,” he said.

“It may create a generation trapped in a cycle of entitlement and empathy deficits.”

The broader shift among Gen Z toward an external locus of control.

The belief that one’s life is controlled by outside forces has also been tied to rising anxiety and depression.

This has especially been the case since the explosion of social media in the early 2010s.

Progressive campus policies may only worsen the trend.

Greg Lukianoff, co-author with Haidt of The Coddling of the American Mind, has warned that safe spaces, trigger warnings, and ideological echo chambers act as “reverse cognitive behavioral therapy,” validating fear and fragility instead of fostering strength and resilience.

For liberal women, the data suggests that politics may be part of the problem, not the solution.