Kerby Anderson

Shortly after the “Women’s March on Washington,” Dr. Steve Turley wrote about the “feminist futility” of the march and its major policy initiatives. Feminists and LGBT activists have been pushing programs and policies that almost guarantee that future feminists and activists will be smaller in number. It all comes down to what I have written about in the past: the fertility gap.

Steve Turley cited a recent demographic study done by a professor at the University of London. He points to a significant demographic deficit between secularists and conservative religionists. In the U.S., self-identified secular women averaged only 1.5 children per couple. By contrast, conservative evangelical women averaged 2 to 3 children per couple. That is a fertility gap of 28 percent.

There are many reasons why this is happening, and they go back to feminism in general and the “Women’s March” in particular. Feminists focus on women’s freedom and relegate motherhood to merely a lifestyle choice. Secular women are more likely to abort, so they are less likely to have as many children as evangelical women.

To put it another way, inherent in the message of feminism and secularism is perspective that essentially guarantees its demise. Conservative women have more children than liberal women. Religious women have more children than secular women.

The only factor that alters that demographic difference is the conversion of children raised in religious homes into secularists. Unfortunately, the colleges have done a fair job of doing that. But that doesn’t change the reality that the message of feminism can be self-destructive.