• by J. Walker Smith , Op-Ed Contributor, September 18, 2024

Young women are taking their own path. So finds Gallup in a recent report on the continuing growth of liberal political identification among women 18-to-29 years of age.

This report was subsequently picked up and echoed by The New York Times in a news analysis about the events of the past decade accounting for this unusually quick shift in politics and marked divergence from young men.

With a close election hanging in the balance between a woman of color at the top of the Democratic ticket and a white man atop the Republican slate, this shift in political leanings could play a big part in the outcome.

This finding about the gender gap in politics among young people is not new. It has made headlines before. Gallup's latest report finds that it is continuing to grow.

That said, I have quibbles with some of the hyperbole. Gallup tracked a change from 28% of women 18 to 29 years old identifying as liberal earlier in this century to 40% today. Or to put it another way, from roughly three in ten to four in ten — meaning that the majority of young women still do not identify as liberal.

It used to be that if you guessed a young woman was liberal, you'd be wrong seven out of ten times. Today, it’s six of ten. Better, but still off-target.

By contrast, men over this same period are unchanged — with 25% identifying as liberal then, and the same now. To me, this is the bigger news. Women are changing; men are not.

Young women are diverging from young men more ways than politically. The biggest thing that headlines are not covering is the broader context of change within which young women are caught up. Young women are taking their own path in other ways as well.

Not all of this is uplifting. More young women are arrested and incarcerated these days. But this is a forty-year trend, not a recent spike. Still, there is something amiss.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made its own headlines a couple of years ago with findings from its biannual Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System tracking that nearly six in ten high school girls report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.” The latest tracking is a few percentage points lower, but still over half.

Other developments are more positive. For example, there is a lot of talk these days about the so-called sex recession or the trend toward celibacy, especially among young people. Evidence on this is mixed. However, the CDC has tracked a significant decline in teen sex activity, with more of an absolute decline for teen boys than for teen girls — to the point that it's now roughly equal for both.

The consequence is that teen pregnancies have bottomed out (everywhere but the African continent). And women in their early thirties are having more babies than women in their early twenties.

In parallel, the average age of first marriage has been rising across most of the globe for several decades, particularly in the U.S. Single households headed by women are growing rapidly.

This freedom from traditional life-stage expectations appears to have enabled young women to widen their interests and pursuits. A decade ago, young women were reported to be the fastest-growing audience for digital news. Women are also the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs and senior company executives.

Young women are a rapidly growing audience for sports, too. Not to mention that women’s sports are attracting a fast-growing audience of fans.

Young women are outpacing young men in higher education in the U.S., accounting for the greater portion of college enrollment and college graduations. Women are also making substantial inroads into post-graduate and professional degrees.

Not only is this a leg up on men in the job market, it is a wholly different life experience and cultural exposure than that of men.

There are other things, I'm sure. There's no doubt that trends with respect to diversity, wealth, shopping influence and media usage are going through gender divergence as well.

The point is that the trajectory of young women today is more than just political leaning. Indeed, it cuts across politics. It's an entirely different set of prospects that young women are pioneering for themselves.

Not that it will be easy. Workplace barriers and legal disparities continue. But it's apparent that something transformational is ahead.

Young women want to break the mold. More so than young men, it seems. Young men are more content to stay the course. Young women are determined to find their own path.

What young women pioneer will be the break-out direction of tomorrow. Young women are the bellwethers to watch.