WSJ Your Money Briefing - Why More Women Are Giving Up on Marriage

Episode Date: March 26, 2025

Gender gaps on politics and education have put some women off dating and even marriage altogether. WSJ reporter Rachel Wolfe joins host Julia Carpenter about what that means for the economy.  Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's your money briefing for Wednesday, March 26th. I'm Julia Carpenter for the Wall Street Journal. More and more American women say they're giving up on marriage. And with widening gender gaps in political views and differing economic circumstances, they're likely not changing their minds anytime soon. It's not like they're swearing off men or they hate men. They really would prefer to be partnered, but they're not gonna settle for one

who isn't the right fit. By making these plans for an independent future, it's them taking control over a situation that they feel like otherwise they don't have control over. We'll talk with WSJ reporter Rachel Wolff about the surprising ways this could shape the future economy. That's after the break. More than half of single American women say they think they're happier than their married friends, according to a survey from the American Enterprise Institute. The Pew Research Center found nearly a third report they're giving up on dating, and 48%

of women say getting married doesn't figure into their image of a fulfilling life. But what do these data points have to do with the economy? Turns out, a lot. Wall Street Journal reporter Rachel Wolf joins me to talk more. Rachel, I feel like this is something I'm already hearing a lot anecdotally, mostly from my straight female friends, that they're just fed up with dating. But you found a lot of data that shows this issue is way more widespread. So what I found is that this trend is not just something that's going on in people's heads. It's not

just a product of having expectations that are too high. It's a product of real and huge demographic shifts between men and women. Men are now more likely to have gone to college. They're more likely to identify as conservative and to have more traditional views on gender and marriage. And so both men and women are struggling to find what they're looking for, but women are more likely to report that it's causing them to swear off the search altogether and to deprioritize romance in favor of focusing on things

like their friendships and their careers. And you spoke with one economist who had this to say about American men and their career prospects. Young men are doing so badly as a group that there are simply no eligible men for women without a college degree to date. What does this mean for cohabitation rates and women's plans for marriage?

What we're seeing is that young men are really struggling across a whole host of factors and They are having a lot more trouble finding Paying jobs than they once did women on the other hand are flourishing They are just blazing ahead and so what that means is that women no longer are financially dependent on men to Do the things that they wanna do in life, including buy houses and have kids. And so more of them are doing it alone.

It makes economic sense that if they don't have to settle, they won't, which is not to say that they don't ever want to get married and find a romantic partner, but it does mean that they don't have to accept something that doesn't meet their standards. It also brings up an interesting issue because I've reported in the past on the widening financial gap between single people and married people. And I know this is a recurring topic

in your journalism too. And with today's housing market and the high cost of living, there's just so much single people feel they can't achieve on their own. And I wonder what people had to say to you about that. We're seeing two things at once, which I think are really interesting. On one hand, the wealth gap between single men and single women has really closed. However, the wealth gap between single people and their married counterparts has widened exponentially. I saw one woman who lives in a rural town in Washington and she bought her own house and for her really solidified

that she does not need a man to be content. She's like, I am lonely, I go volunteer at the dog shelter. And that's great. And that really shows how the financial freedom piece Also gives her emotional freedom. But when I talked to women in bigger cities, they were frustrated They said that the worst part about being single wasn't that they were lonely it was that they had nobody to split read with and So it is a real Challenge for people who are more likely to be single longer than they were in the past

I was definitely struck by so many of the stories in your piece. And I just wanted to ask you, what did the women you interviewed have to say about dating and their romantic lives? What do they want from a future without marriage? The vibe was generally that they were making the best of a lousy situation. Some of them were really on the solo empowerment journey and had really found a lot of joy in their singledom. But for most of the women I spoke to, it wasn't really a choice. It's not like they're swearing off men or they hate men.

They really would prefer to be partnered, but they're not going to settle for one who isn't the right fit. By making these plans for an independent future, it's them taking control over a situation that they feel like otherwise they don't have control over. They're like the victims of this demographic reality and so they're making the best of a situation that isn't ideal. And I really wanted to make sure to get that across in the piece, that these women are not saying, I hate men, I hate marriage, I'm better off without them. They're saying, I'm gonna do these things that I wanna do either way. When you're looking at the big picture here,

what did these changes mean for the economy? We've seen just a huge decline in the number of kids that women are having. And I think the fact that they are less likely to be partnered is tied to it. So we will continue to see that trend. I think it has implications for the housing market, which we've obviously seen is really slow if people don't have two incomes, it's much harder to buy a house. And it just has implications for spending more generally. Couples spend their money really differently

than single people do. You might see a little bit more spending on things like travel and a little bit less spending on things like childcare. Just because people are saying that they are less interested in dating doesn't mean that they will never get married one day. Could just be that they're ultimately decide to get married late.

The data that I'm seeing is it's not just a later it's never for a lot more people. And I think that has just huge implications on how the economy and society functions. That's WSJ reporter Rachel Wolf. And that's it for your money briefing. This episode was produced by Ariana Asparu with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Julia Carpenter for the Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening.

["The Daily Show Theme"]