Young Women are Losing Interest in Marriage
Back in the 20th century, high school girls tended to peruse magazines that featured models wearing bridal gowns and bridesmaids dresses as they dreamed about their wedding today. In the 21st century, high school girls are tending to put wedding dreams and having children on the back burner as they focus on a college degree and a career.
Shifting Tide Shows Boys More Interested in Marriage than Girls
A Pew Research Center analysis of 2023 survey data from the University of Michigan found that only 67 percent of U.S. 12th graders said they are interested in eventually getting married. Compare that to a 1993 survey, which found that 80 percent said they wanted to eventually get married. Sadly, only 51 percent expect that they will stay married to the same person for life, and only 48 percent want to eventually have children.
Interestingly, it’s now boys who are more likely to say they want to eventually get married (74 percent), rather than girls (61 percent). This shift is definitely reflective of the mindset of young women in the 21st century, given the fact that back in 1993, a whopping 83 percent of girls versus 76 percent of boys wanted to someday get married.
Possible Causes of the Shift
There’s a great deal of discussion swirling on the internet regarding what has caused this shift. The most common views are that women are more educated, career-minded, self-reliant where finances are concerned, and just as capable of purchasing a home or a car as any man today. However, back in the 70s, if a woman didn’t have a male co-signer for a loan, a lender had the right to deny her loan application, according to Bankrate. Women couldn’t even legally open a bank account until the 1960s, according to Lantern Credit.
As opportunities for women continue to expand, the need for a male counterpart for practical reasons has decreased. At the same time, there has also been an attack on the institution of marriage for many decades. When “no fault divorce” became enacted, the divorce rate doubled between the 1960s – 1980s, and divorce quickly became normalized, according to The Federalist.
Cohabiting has also become normalized. Ironically, the National Library of Medicine conducted a study that found that couples who live together before getting married have a higher rate of marital dissatisfaction and divorce than those who wait until they’re married to live together.
Dating has Gotten Harder
Another possible reason the idea of marriage has become less desirable to young women may be because they believe dating has gotten harder and more complicated. Nearly half of American adults hold that view overall (47 percent), and 55 percent of women say dating is harder than it was even 10 years ago, according to Pew Research. The top reason seems to be increased risk (the risk of being scammed, lied to, or physically harmed), but there are also several other reasons, ranging from online dating apps making it more impersonal to the belief that it’s just harder in general to meet people who are interested in dating.
Single Christian women especially find it difficult to date. Most who are interested in dating want to date a man of like faith, and it doesn’t help that there are nearly twice as many single women as single men in the church. So many are finding that the church isn’t the best place to find a dateable man, according to Relevant Magazine. In fact, many singles feel ignored, out of place, feel that the church doesn’t really know what to do with them, and that a person must be married with kids in order to be taken seriously.
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Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/saiva
Originally published December 02, 2025.
