Growing up in Miami as a Nicaraguan immigrant, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez recalls attending church five days a week, influenced by her father’s role as a pastor. Their strict evangelical beliefs emphasized women’s duty to support their husbands.

However, Mojica Rodríguez also observed the pivotal role women played in maintaining church attendance and church functions. Eventually, frustrated with the limiting role of women and stringent rules against girls, she chose to leave her faith and her marriage in her late 20s.

“Women are growing less interested in churches that minimize our voices and discourage us from being intelligent,” noted Mojica Rodríguez, who later obtained a master’s degree in divinity. “We often feel like the church’s workhorses.”

Now at age 39, her story highlights a troubling trend among younger women moving away from organized religion at a quicker pace than men, according to recent research, reversing historical tendencies.

Over the last few decades, a significant number of Americans have been disconnecting from organized religion. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 63% of Americans identify as Christians, a drop from 90% in the early 1990s.

Conversely, the percentage of individuals considering themselves agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular” has risen to 28%. Traditionally, these changes were predominantly led by men, particularly younger men, but this trend is now shifting.

“Historically, men have consistently shown lower levels of religious commitment than women, regardless of cultural or class backgrounds,” said Daniel A. Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life, whose findings highlighted this shift. “This development is therefore especially significant.”

A new study from Barna Group and Impact 360 Institute supports this trend, according to Barna CEO David Kinnaman. The research reveals that Generation Z women, particularly those aged 18 to 24, are less inclined than young men to identify with any faith or believe in a higher power.

As reported by the Pew Center, this shift is mostly happening among Protestants, with 60% identifying as evangelical. Experts argue that several factors are behind this movement.

Like Mojica Rodríguez, many are frustrated by gender inequalities, the lack of women in leadership roles, or societal expectations regarding behavior and chastity. Others are conflicted over their church’s stance on reproductive and LGBTQ rights.

“Young women are becoming more politically progressive,” stated Ryan Burge, an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, who has studied this trend.

As political divisions increasingly shape people’s perspectives, Burge noted that this mindset is permeating church settings, causing many young women to feel disenchanted and conflicted between their political beliefs and church doctrines.

If this trend persists, it could significantly impact religious communities: Women play a critical role in their congregations, often leading volunteer activities and helping to engage families in religious practices.

“Women are the backbone of church activities,” stated Sheila Wray Gregoire, a former evangelical who has researched Christian marriage in the U.S. and Canada for 17 years. “They manage the logistics of getting children ready for church, run Sunday school classes, and ensure community support during times of illness or joy. Without women, many churches would struggle to survive.”

‘A rising concern’

Burge analyzed data from the Cooperative Election Study, a national survey involving over 50,000 participants, showing that since 2012, the percentage of young women identifying as agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular” has caught up with and even surpassed that of young men.

He pointed out that the trend

cannot be dismissed as a mere coincidence.

“It represents a growing area of concern,” Burge noted. “Currently, the ‘check engine’ light intermittently illuminates—not every time you start your vehicle, but occasionally. You can’t tell if it will correct itself or deteriorate.”

Similarly, the Survey Center on American Life’s 2023 analysis involving over 5,400 adults revealed that males accounted for 54% to 57% of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials who distanced themselves from their childhood faith.

However, among Generation Z, this trend has reversed: 54% of those who left the church are young women. Nearly 40% of Gen Z women identify as religiously unaffiliated, in contrast to about one-third of Gen Z men.

A specific statistic highlighted the stark contrast between young women and their older counterparts: The portion of religiously unaffiliated men in Generation Z is 11 percentage points higher than in Baby Boomers (34% compared to 23%), while young women are almost three times more likely than Baby Boomer women to identify as such (39% compared to 14%).

Factors Leading Young Women to Leave the Church

Researchers suggest that the departure of women from the church is typically due to multiple factors. Increased educational attainments, career aspirations, and a shift in focus away from marriage and parenting play significant roles, as do rising economic pressures associated with parenthood amidst escalating living costs.

Core values may push them away as well. The Survey Center on American Life reports that Generation Z women express significantly more concern than prior generations regarding issues of inequality and are often critical of institutions that maintain patriarchal structures—especially conservative churches where women are prohibited from preaching or occupying leadership roles.

“There’s a noticeable cultural clash when young women are told they can achieve anything, yet when it comes to their places of worship, limitations are imposed,” said Cox. “This is yet another dilemma these institutions face.”

Though many denominations now permit the ordination of women, the implementation of these policies can vary significantly at the local level, where clergy might be influenced by their congregants who resist such changes.

“Why remain in a place where your voice is disregarded?” questioned Gregoire, a former evangelical. “It’s disheartening to grow up with a profound, personal faith only to experience a church that treats you as inferior. It feels like having the ground pulled out from beneath you.”

As more instances of sexual misconduct involving church leaders emerge, the influence of the #MeToo movement, along with its religious equivalent #ChurchToo, has given young women the confidence to assert, “I deserve better,” Burge explained.

Tim Whitaker, founder and director of The New Evangelicals, a digital nonprofit catering to former evangelicals reassessing their beliefs, highlighted how notions of “purity culture” and “modesty culture”—which demand that girls be chaste and dress in a modest manner—are deeply ingrained in certain evangelical congregations.

“I’ve heard that even young girls, as early as 10, are being told that their dresses are too short,” he remarked.

Gregoire stated that purity culture conveys the message that women bear the responsibility for men’s inappropriate thoughts. This belief motivated her to start Bare Marriage, a podcast and research project focused on the sexual and marital satisfaction of evangelical women in the U.S. and Canada.

“The way a woman presents herself can cause a man to sin—that’s the language used,” Gregoire explained. “Because of this rhetoric, churches often fail to educate about consent, leaving girls who suffer sexual assaults feeling like it’s their fault, as if ‘he was just being a man.’”

Such narratives are promoted in literature aimed at teenagers, young men, and parents, which is circulated by pastors during premarital counseling or presented by peers in bridal settings.

“It isn’t always directly from the pulpit,” noted Rebecca Lindenbach, Gregoire’s daughter and co-partner at Bare Marriage. “But they utilize curricula with suggested readings. That’s how these concepts continue to spread.”

Overall, Gregoire pointed out that attendance at church can benefit women, leading to increased marital satisfaction and improved mental health.

However, it becomes detrimental when women accept what she describes as “harmful teachings,” which suggest that a woman must engage in sex frequently with her husband to prevent him from viewing pornography.

These beliefs, she noted, continue to thrive in certain conservative sectors of Southern Baptist and fundamentalist Baptist groups.

“Not every church operates this way,” Gregoire remarked. “Yet, the manner in which numerous churches approach gender roles is a conscious choice, resulting in a significant departure of women from these congregations.”

Breaking Free from Purity Culture

Mojica Rodríguez, an author from Nashville, shared memories of being forbidden from having male friends and receiving phone calls from anyone who wasn’t Christian. In contrast, her brother was allowed to stay out late while she was restricted from even stepping outside.

She recounted attending a youth conference that separated boys and girls; the boys discussed leadership, while the girls were tasked with creating a list of desirable qualities in a husband.

At 20, her outing with a male friend was closely monitored, with her pastor father keeping a watchful eye on her interactions.

“He would say, ‘If people see that I can’t control you, why would they listen to me?’” she said. “I felt the heavy burden of purity culture.”

When she got married, it was to someone she had only known for seven months.

“The teaching emphasizes marrying quickly to avoid the temptations of lust,” she explained. “They push you into relationships with near strangers to sidestep pre-marital sin. To my mom, our first kiss was at the wedding.”

Gradually, Mojica Rodríguez recognized that her marriage was also an escape. Leaving home allowed her to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University, where she began to re-evaluate her upbringing’s teachings. Her father showed little interest in her theological perspectives, due to her gender.

In 2013, while still in her graduate program, she made the tough decisions to end her marriage and her affiliation with the church. Seeking emotional support from her mother, she was met with the suggestion to go back to her husband, with no inquiries into her reasons for leaving.

Not long after, she found out she was pregnant, presenting her with another challenging decision. She ultimately chose to have an abortion.

“These two events directly contradicted everything I had been taught,” she reflected. “I was left questioning whether I would live in shame forever or find peace. It was agonizing, yet even more painful was being deeply misunderstood by my family, who judged my choices through the lens of their church beliefs.”

The Church’s Response to the Crisis

Whitaker from The New Evangelicals noted that while many of these issues impact women in general, younger women are increasingly disengaged from the church compared to older generations who maintain stronger ties through family and community connections.

He attributed the growing departure of young evangelical women to the emergence of social media platforms, which provide a space for them to share their experiences and validate their feelings of dissatisfaction. Since its launch in 2022, his organization has gained a following of approximately 116,000 on Instagram, with women comprising around 70% of that audience.

“These platforms have offered them a venue to voice their thoughts and be acknowledged,” he explained. “Seeing the experiences of others and witnessing their transitions has encouraged them to seriously consider their own concerns.”

Whitaker primarily hears from those departing from white evangelical churches and doubts that many of these institutions will make changes to halt this trend.

“Many believe that God has given them specific directives regarding sexuality, gender, and hierarchy, so when individuals leave for these reasons, they interpret it as a complete abandonment of the church,” he noted. “I don’t believe the evangelical church will alter its stance anytime soon.”

The Rev. David Gushee, the author of “After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity” and a Christian ethics professor at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, observed that while some evangelical leaders attempt to respond positively, “others are intensifying toxic masculinity. It’s quite disheartening.”

Tod Bolsinger, an ordained Presbyterian pastor consulting with churches facing societal changes, stated that many congregations are struggling to redefine their identities moving forward.

“The issue is establishing clarity about what is fundamentally important and unchangeable while being ready to adapt everything else,” he explained.

Bolsinger, who also serves as an associate professor of leadership formation at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California, emphasized that cultural changes require church leaders to rethink their established beliefs.

“For many years, people would argue Young individuals may leave, but when they tie the knot and have their children baptized, they typically return,” he explained. “That’s not the case anymore. It’s essential to provide something appealing to people. If we are losing those who have traditionally been our most devoted supporters, that’s a serious issue.”