A significant chunk of the women responsible for birthing and raising the next generation don’t think having kids fits their personal definition of success.
A new NBC News poll of 2,970 adults aged 18 to 29 found that having children does not rank as a high priority for success among young females, especially the majority of whom voted Democrat in the last election.
Overall, Generation Z men and women all said having children followed behind having a fulfilling job, having money, achieving financial indepence, using talents to better others, and owning a home when it came to building a life they believed to be “successful.”
That number only shrank among females who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. Just 6 percent of those Generation Z women who backed the blue party last year said having children was an important marker of success. Marriage also ranked towards the bottom of the list for those women — at around 6 percent.
The percentage of women who believe having children is an important marker of success was much higher among females who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, but only at 26 percent. For that particular group, marriage also fell towards the bottom of the success markers at just 20 percent.
In contrast, 34 percent of the men surveyed who voted for President Donald Trump in 2024 counted having children as an important factor to their definition of success. Financial independence and a fulfilling job/career trailed closely behind at 33 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
Approximately 29 percent of MAGA men also classified marriage as fairly important to their quest for success, making it one of their top five achievement measures in the survey.
It’s no secret that fewer and fewer Americans are having children. In July, the Centers for Disease Control announced the U.S. birth rate fell yet again to a record low of 1.6 children per woman.
An alarming rise in at-home abortive drugs, tanking testosterone, and anti-kid rhetoric has no doubt contributed in some form to the rapid erosion of American births. More apparent than ever, however, is the fact that the desire among young people to bear children — at least enough to satisfy the replacement rate — is simply not there.
Instead, a focus on career and finances, a phenomenon no doubt exacerbated and encouraged by fourth-wave feminism, has taken root. As the NBC poll demonstrates, the biggest impact of this effect is happening in women who vote Democrat. Other demographics, however, are not immune to that erosion.