Daydreaming of finding the right conservative man to settle down with? Or are you skeptical that marriage might get in the way of your career goals? I have the perfect book for you!

This Spring, the women of NeW will be reading Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization by Professor Brad Wilcox. At the University of Virginia, Wilcox is a professor of sociology and director of the National Marriage Project. He is also a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies as well as the American Enterprise Institute. In his previous research, Wilcox has examined how important marriages are for kids. Recently, however, he has found that students are more concerned with romantic prospects before they are concerned about children, so his research shifted to figure out what we can do as a society to make it easier for students to find a spouse.   

On February 7, 2024, Professor Wilcox joined the women of NeW via Zoom to discuss his new book, Get Married, which was released on February 13, 2024.  Wilcox shared that there is a global decline in marriages. Even countries like Finland, which is boasted of having great family policies, are seeing a decline in marriages. Why is this? Wilcox’s book covers the various reasons for this phenomenon including misplaced trust in a career as one’s primary source of fulfillment. He examines studies that show that while a steady career is one indicator of success, a career as an individual’s be-all and end-all causes damage to the family unit and ultimately society as a whole. Wilcox revealed that, statistically, married women with children are actually the happiest group of people stating that these women believe their life has purpose and meaning to a higher degree than their unmarried peers. When asked about the rise of depression in the United States, Wilcox replied that it seems there is a connection between the decline in marriage and the decline in happiness. He suggests that communities need good family structure to thrive and if we work to promote healthy marries in this country, we will see improvement in more areas than one! 

While Get Married does not directly provide dating advice for young women like us, Professor Wilcox assured us there are still many helpful takeaways. The book helps readers understand the deeper value of marriage; these values can help guide single men and women to pick a suitable partner to do life with. Wilcox also shared a bit of good news for single conservative women: Due to global ideological polarization between men and women, there are increasing numbers of conservative men! Unfortunately, this also means more women are becoming liberal, making it increasingly difficult to find a like-minded community of conservative women. Lucky for you, you have already found a premier conservative women’s organization to help you with this! *wink, wink.*  

Join NeW this Spring in reading Get Married: Why Americans Must Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families, and Save Civilization, and be sure to join us for our Book Club Recap Meeting on April 10th!