Cultural Feminism Has Made Women Poor Marriage Prospects, Contributing to Rising Male Singlehood
Source: Bethany Miller. "Twice As Many Men Are Single Than Married Today. Are Women To Blame?." September 24, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The author argues that while men get blamed for the marriage crisis (too many video games, porn, immaturity), we should also ask whether cultural messaging has made women less prepared for the sacrifices marriage requires. She points to social media trends emphasizing female independence and self-protection, and public reactions to a murder case, as evidence that women have been culturally shaped to resist the obligations that marriage demands.
Conclusion
Contemporary feminist-influenced culture has shaped many young women to be poorly suited for marriage, and this is a significant contributing factor to the record number of unmarried men, alongside (not instead of) male shortcomings.
Premises
- There are nearly twice as many unmarried men as married men aged 20-39, and the cultural explanation typically focuses only on male deficiencies (porn, gaming, delayed adulthood, etc.)
- Women are culturally encouraged to scrutinize men's character and red flags, while men who scrutinize women's character similarly are accused of sexism or insecurity
- Social media and cultural messaging (e.g., 'decentering men,' 'protecting your peace') promote female autonomy and self-protection in ways that conflict with the self-sacrificing obligations marriage requires
- Public reaction to the Lindsay Clancy case revealed a cultural tendency toward female solidarity and victim-framing that overrides moral judgment, causing some men to question women's fitness for motherhood
- Feminist ideology frames women primarily as acted-upon by oppressive systems, so female failures are explained environmentally while male failures are treated as moral failures requiring self-improvement
- Women increasingly want traditionally masculine qualities in partners (confidence, provision, leadership) while culturally stigmatizing those same traits as toxic
- Survey data show declining marriage expectations among young women (83% to 61% from 1993-2023) while male expectations remained stable, undermining the narrative that men alone abandoned marriage
Assumptions
- Marriage requires primarily traits like self-sacrifice, duty, and interdependence that are in tension with autonomy-focused cultural messaging
- Cultural messaging aimed at women (social media trends, magazine articles) has a causal, not merely correlative, effect on women's actual relationship behavior and marriageability
- The reactions of some online users to the Clancy case are representative of a broader cultural pattern among women generally, rather than an unrepresentative subset
- Declining marriage expectation percentages among female high schoolers indicate a rejection of marriage values rather than other factors (e.g., economic anxiety, delayed timelines)
- The demand for men to become 'worth marrying' and the demand for women to become 'marriage material' are symmetrical and equally weighted causes of the marriage decline
- 'Toxic femininity' is a coherent and comparably significant cultural force analogous to 'toxic masculinity'