Why are liberal women so unhappy?

It's definitely a thing

Why are liberal women so unhappy?

I recently read a report and, at first, thought it was a random survey or two that conservatives were clucking about. But when I researched it, I discovered study after study saying the same thing: By any measure, liberal women are the most unhappy demographic in America. More than conservative women. More than men of all political stripes.

The first measurement is self-reported happiness, and the General Social Survey, America's gold standard for tracking happiness, shows conservatives repeatedly scoring higher. The difference isn't trivial, either. In 2022, conservatives were about 10-15 percentage points more likely to describe themselves as "very happy."

The American Family Survey shows the same thing. Its findings show conservative women are nearly twice as likely as liberal women to feel “completely satisfied” with their lives—31 percent versus 15 percent.

But that’s just self-reported happiness levels. When we talk about mental health — things get even uglier, especially for younger women. Pew Research found that among white women aged 18-29, an astounding 56% of liberals reported being diagnosed with a mental health condition—more than double the 27% rate among conservative women.

And it’s not just young women. The same Pew data shows that liberal women in their 30s and 40s also report significantly more mental health diagnoses than conservatives in the same age group.

Let’s first address some important caveats. Liberal women, particularly those in educated, urban circles, are much more likely to seek therapy. In some of these environments, therapy isn’t just accepted—it’s practically a status symbol. This cultural openness can lead to inflated diagnosis rates, potentially because conservative women might be suffering silently or simply less inclined to discuss their mental health openly.

But even accounting for these caveats, several clear factors emerge that can explain why liberal women consistently report lower happiness levels. So what’s going on?

Liberal women are less likely to be married. Marriage and family life play a huge role, and decades of social science research consistently demonstrate that marriage strongly predicts happiness. Conservative women are significantly more likely to be married. Among women aged 18 to 55, 56% of conservatives are married compared to just 37% of liberals. Family life provides emotional support, stability, shared responsibilities, and companionship—all ingredients proven to boost overall life satisfaction.

Social media. Data from Monitoring the Future shows that since 2010, coinciding precisely with the rise of smartphones and social media, depression rates among liberal teenage girls have skyrocketed far faster than among conservative teens. And who were the heaviest users of social media? Liberal girls. They spend more time on social media than their conservative peers, and they’re more likely to say social media makes them feel worse about themselves.

It’s not just the endless beauty filters and influencer envy, although that’s part of it. It’s also the way liberal culture encourages a kind of public vulnerability performance. If you’re a young liberal woman online, talking about your anxiety, your trauma, or your existential dread isn’t just allowed — it’s rewarded. It’s both catnip for the algorithm, and poison for your mental health.

Then there’s the political climate itself. Studies show liberal mental health significantly deteriorated after events like the 2016 election, and it’s obviously true for the latest election as well. The reason isn’t hard to see. Liberalism often focuses intensely on injustices, societal problems, and perceived threats, creating a worldview steeped in anxiety and fear. On top of that mix, of course, throw in Donald Trump who many have turned into Hitler reborn.

Conservatives certainly get bothered by politics as well, but they more often frame challenges as personal hurdles or temporary problems, maintaining a more optimistic outlook that doesn’t tear down their mental health.

Finally, there’s the therapy culture itself. It’s something that seems helpful but might actually be part of the problem.

If you’ve spent any time in progressive spaces you know that self-analysis can be practically a religion. Journaling, trauma unpacking, inner child work, attachment theory, self-diagnosing, and constantly revisiting every bad thing that ever happened to you. I live in Northern California and see it routinely.

There’s a good side to taking care of your mental health, of course, but there’s a point where too much introspection goes bad, especially when you put your negative thoughts on a loop. The more you dig into your own sadness, the sadder you get. Conservatives tend to focus more on external goals — career, family, and whatnot — and they spend less time worrying about their internal emotional states. And they’re happier.

None of this proves that being liberal causes depression. Life is messier than that. But when you combine less marriage, more social media, a catastrophizing worldview, and a lot of self-analysis, you get a pretty clear picture of why liberal women, on average, feel more stressed, anxious, and unhappy.

Interested in learning more? Here’s a video where I dive a a bit deeper. Have a great day!

— Ken