The Following Content Has Been Provided by:Bob Unruh

For decades, many society influencers have touted the idea that the path to happiness for women is to be a career-minded professional with corporate titles and accolades, a platinum card and an absence of preschool, play-date and baby-sitting responsibilities.

That might work for some, but a new survey shows that more married women with children report being “very happy” than those unmarried without.

The survey by the Institute for Family Studies has found that 19% of married women with children report being very happy. That beats all other categories, including married without children at 11%, unmarried with children at 13% and unmarried without children at 10%.

The survey reported, “Married women are also more likely than unmarried women to say that life was enjoyable most or all of the time: 47% of married mothers and 43% of married childless women say life is enjoyable, compared to 40% of unmarried mothers and 34% of unmarried childless women.”

The survey was done by Jean M. Twenge, Jenet Erickson, Wendy Wang, and Brad Wilcox, and Twenge wrote of her own decisions about marriage and children.

Then she explained, “These findings are not a one-off. Well-respected sources, such as the General Social Survey, show the same result; married mothers and fathers in that survey were more likely to report being ‘very happy’ than unmarried people and those without children. Another recent study found that married or partnered mothers are less likely to frequently feel depressed or anxious than people in the other three groups.

“Could it be not that marriage produces happiness, but that the causation goes the other way—that happier people are more likely to marry? One study controlled for premarital happiness levels and still found that marriage results in happier people and a less intense dip in life satisfaction at middle age.

“That’s not to say the roles of wife and mother don’t have their challenges. Roughly two-thirds of mothers in our survey, for example, said that they felt overwhelmed each day (though so did more than half of nonmothers). About six in 10 mothers said that they wished they had more time to themselves, compared with about four out of 10 childless women.”

She noted, “Why, then, are mothers happier? The reasons speak to the profound experience of parenthood. Married mothers were the most likely to agree that their life ‘has a clear sense of purpose’ (28 percent), followed closely by unmarried mothers (25 percent). Only approximately 15 percent of women without children agreed. Mothers were also more likely than nonmothers to agree that their life ‘feels meaningful’ all or most of the time.

“I now have three children, and I am somewhat incredulous that in my premotherhood inquiries, no one mentioned the sense of purpose parenthood gives you. Yes, you’re going to be tired and overwhelmed, but there’s a deep knowledge that you’re doing something important with your life: You’re nurturing a human being. These feelings of purpose and meaning are sometimes difficult to put into words—perhaps why they aren’t regularly discussed—but they are central to being a parent. I am fortunate to have a career I love and find meaningful; even so, the sense of purpose I have found through motherhood dwarfs every career milestone I have ever achieved.”

She said, “The survey results also showed that marriage comes with several advantages. Married women are about half as likely to report being lonely as unmarried women. One factor may be that married women are more likely, they report, to regularly receive physical affection and touch. Touch is, in turn, strongly linked to happiness: 22 percent of women in the survey who experienced a high level of physical touch were very happy, compared with only 7 percent of those who received a low level of touch. Touch, especially from a spouse, is associated with reduced stress, increased trust, and greater feelings of safety.

“The false narrative that marriage and motherhood are a recipe for women’s unhappiness is doing a lot of damage. In a nationally representative survey that I analyzed for my book Generations, the number of 18-year-old women who expected to have children plummeted by 11 percentage points from the late 2000s to the early 2020s. Negative messaging about marriage and motherhood is likely at the root of these Gen Z shifts, along with a pervasive pessimism about everything, egged on by social media, that borders on doomerism. Young people are also profoundly lonely and spend less time with their peers in person; the consequences for their adult relationships are unknown. Recent trends are even more concerning: AI girlfriends and boyfriends now offer the prospect of ‘relationships’ with an always-available entity that has no needs of its own. Meanwhile, the fertility rate in the U.S. is at an all-time low.”

The survey reported, “Popular press articles often declare that single women without children are happier than married mothers, with headlines such as: ‘Women are happier without children or a spouse, says happiness expert,’ or ‘4 reasons why single women are the happiest people on Earth—by a psychologist,’ and ‘Why so many single women without children are happy.’”

It states, “Being married is the most important differentiator of happiness in America, with married people 30 percentage points happier than unmarried people. However, little of this research has focused specifically on women, and it is unclear how marriage and motherhood are linked to one another and to women’s happiness.”

The study was conducted by YouGov from March 1-12, 2025, with a representative sample of 3,000 women, ages 25-55, in the U.S.

The results also reported women, married with children, generally are less lonely. Only 11% reported being lonely most or all of the time in the last past 30s. For married without children, it was 10%, for unmarried with children 23% and for unmarried without children 20%.

Women married with children also reported more physical touch, which leads to being happier.

“Thus, one factor that explains why married women are happier than their unmarried peers is that they have more regular opportunities for kissing, hugging, and snuggling. For example, 58% of married women with children and 61% of married women without children report that they often get hugs or kisses, while only 36% of unmarried mothers and 18% of unmarried women without children report the same,” the survey said.