American Culture Fuels the Gynocracy
Why are young college-educated women trending left-wing?
Many like Charlie Kirk blame universities for indoctrinating young women. But the problem is deeper. Parents and young women have swallowed a feminist vision of the heroic feminine that elevates the university while leaving tradition and family behind.
“What defines” the New Woman, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead wrote in her 2003 book Why There Are No Good Men Left, “is not her relationship to marriage, but the remarkable path she follows from cradle to career.” She is single for longer than she used to be. She may not want children. She is independent, confident, increasingly irreligious, and must stand on her own. Advanced education and professional achievement are keys to the new view of womanhood.
Marriage, motherhood, and religion used to be the most important markers for women. Parents beamed when daughters married. Fathers hoped daughters would earn an M.R.S. degree. Wedding pictures were mounted above fireplaces. No more.
Universities now seem to constitute the sum total of female aspirations and dreams—and parents tend to endorse the transvaluation. Graduation pictures are replacing wedding photos. Mothers get excited about their daughters’ admissions and internships, and worry about marriage proposals arriving before the age of 30. Children are expensive! And distracting. Pregnancy before 35 stifles self-sufficiency and real accomplishment.
Don’t blame the universities for indoctrinating young women who are just fulfilling their parents’ (and their culture’s) dreams of independence from a man, which regrettably comes with independence from God, country, and traditions.
This new girl is remarkable. Her mother makes a “to-do” list centered on the university while the youngster checks items off. Mom stresses over grades so her daughter can get into the best schools, always pleasing teachers with her conscientiousness and competence. Check. She does test prep for college admissions. Check. She finds a mentor. Check. She identifies obstacles to overcome and overcomes them. Check. The right schools. Internships. Credentials. Contraception. Check. Check. Check. Check. She arrives in the workplace. Check.
Girls adopt what Hannah Rosin calls the “good girl” mentality of self-discipline and credential-based achievement. Studies and polls show that girls spend as much as 50% more time than boys doing homework. About two-thirds of students taking AP English classes are female. Honors colleges are overwhelmingly female as well. Girls take college admission exams at higher rates than boys. A larger percentage of Gen Z girls think college education is very important compared to boys.
In 2024, American females earned 65% of associate’s degrees, over 58% of all undergraduate degrees and master’s degrees, and just over 53% of doctoral degrees. Just as females dominate the student body, they are inching toward a majority among full-time faculty (their percentage increased from 32% to 48% between 1991 and 2021). Females make up a majority of assistant professors as of 2021. As Heather MacDonald shows, women hold two-thirds of all administrative positions at universities as of 2021 (the number is probably higher today). Women increasingly hold the top spots at America’s most prestigious universities, too.
Female sensibilities govern universities. “The feminization of the university is all but complete,” as MacDonald argues. Not only are classes catering to the feminist vision of the heroic feminine, but the feminist rhetoric of safe spaces and victimhood dominates university communications and disciplinary approaches. When co-eds hear of political views not to their liking, university bureaucracies hold listening sessions to validate their fears and self-pity. Campuses emphasize counseling, wellness centers, relaxation oases, and healing circles to support students who seem to be facing mental health crisis after mental health crisis.
Without universities, women’s lives would supposedly be empty, a destiny without shoes in the kitchen and with a brood. With universities, the possibilities seem endless. Perhaps, someday, the box-checkers could be staffers at Capitol Hill, and perhaps even meet Nancy Mace or Nancy Pelosi!
The university fosters the supposedly glamorous, independent life. Pictures of such career-oriented, professional glam girls—with arms folded in knowing confidence or looking at a smartphone to show their importance to a company’s operations—direct the aspirations of many. Middle management for most. World travel for some. Economic and political power for a few. This image, more than the university itself, directs women to the ideological Left.
The place of the university in the drama of a young lady’s dreams is poisonous for America’s culture and politics. But destroying the universities will not destroy the New Girl Order. The universities are not feminist factories—American culture itself is that feminist factory. Only an alternative vision of the heroic feminine can win the day.
The post American Culture Fuels the Gynocracy appeared first on The American Mind.