Feminism and abortions have handicapped their population growth. They’d rather chase a higher paying job into their mid 30s and only have 1 child or no children at all than get married early and raise multiple children.

“They are often leaning into a “Midas Mindset” that prioritizes making money, education, and, especially, career. Work is viewed as the source and summit of a meaningful and happy life. Focusing on love, marriage, and starting a family, by contrast, does not merit nearly the same devotion. A recent NBC News poll found, for instance, that Gen Zers (18-29) who voted for Kamala Harris, especially women, ranked getting married and having children almost dead last in their “personal definition of success.” Instead, women gave top billing to “Having a job or career you find fulfilling” (#1), or “Having enough money to do the things you want to do” (#2).”

“Meanwhile, conservatives have been more likely to embrace a “family first” mindset that puts a premium on marriage and childbearing. The most recent prominent apostle on the Right for family was the late Charlie Kirk, who said that “Having a family will change your life in the best ways, so get married and have kids. You won’t regret it.” The recently assassinated founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA) also told young adults that embracing “careerism and consumerism” at the expense of starting a family in your 20s is a big mistake. “Having children is more important than having a good career … my kids matter more than how many social media followers I have,” Kirk said on Fox News, just two days before he was killed.

This message isn’t just coming from TPUSA: many of the most popular podcast hosts and influencers on the Right—from Ben Shapiro and Allie Beth Stuckey to Matt Walsh and Brett Cooper—regularly deliver messages to their audiences celebrating the joys of marriage and parenthood. Meanwhile, rising stars in the broader conservative firmament, from Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary to the billionaire Lucky Palmer, are confessing that they wish they had married their wives earlier. And a growing crop of twentysomething conservative female influencers like Riley Gaines and Isabel Brown can be found celebrating young marriage and motherhood. “There’s nothing that could’ve prepared me for a love like this. God has blessed us beyond belief. Welcome to the world, sweet Margot,” Gaines recently wrote, after giving birth to her first child.

The bigger point is that the new media on the Right is building a family-first “plausibility structure” that now competes with the Left’s less-than-family-friendly messaging in the mainstream media, the Ivory Tower, and online. In the Right’s plausibility structure, family is idealized, conservatives are exposed to the values and virtues that are supposed to make marriages strong and stable, and young adults are being directed to communities that prioritize family-first living: evangelical and Catholic churches, in particular.

The emergence of this family-first plausibility structure helps explain the enduring appeal of marriage and family among conservative Gen Zers, especially young men on the right. That NBC News poll of Gen Zers reported, for instance, that young men who voted for Trump in 2024 listed parenthood (#1) and marriage (#4) as some of their top life priorities, the opposite of young women on the Left. A recent survey from Demographic Intelligence spotlighted by Scott Yenor and Lyman Stone found that “conservative women want more children and they’re likelier to marry, and to marry young.” This family orientation on the Right also aligns well with what looks like a potential upswing in churchgoing among Gen Z men, given that religion is seen as a pillar of family-first living and a good place to find a mate for many conservatives.”

The feminist movement ironically will lead to a numerical advantage for conservatives that will swing future elections.

The Left’s Family Problem: Marriage And Kids Cratering Among Liberal Young Adults

This post was edited on 1/31/26 at 3:16 pm