A recent NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll, highlighted by Andrea Widburg on American Thinker on September 9, 2025, reveals a stark gender divide among Gen Z (ages 18-29) in the United States, with profound implications for Australia and the broader West. The poll shows that young men, particularly those who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, prioritise marriage and children as markers of personal success, while young women, especially those who supported Kamala Harris (74% of whom identify as Leftists), rank these near the bottom of their priorities. This divide, coupled with heightened anxiety among young women,66% report feeling anxious "most" or "all the time" compared to 46% of men, signals a cultural shift that could lead to social collapse. This essay argues that the rejection of family and traditional values by young leftist women, if mirrored in Australia, risks destabilising society, undermining demographic sustainability, and paradoxically eroding women's liberation in a future "barbarian world" where power dynamics revert to physical strength and tribalism.
The NBC poll, conducted from August 13 to September 1, 2025, surveyed 2,970 Gen Z adults and found that 34% of Trump-voting men ranked having children as their top marker of success, with marriage fourth, while Harris-voting women ranked children second-to-last (6% deemed it important) and marriage eleventh. Even Trump-voting women were less enthusiastic, ranking children sixth and marriage ninth. This divergence reflects a broader ideological split: 74% of Gen Z women identify as Leftists, compared to 53% of men, with women prioritising emotional stability (39%), a fulfilling career (51%), and financial freedom (46%) over family. Men, particularly conservatives, value family, faith, and community pride, aligning with traditional notions of legacy.
In Australia, similar trends are emerging. The 2024 Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) survey reported that only 45% of women aged 18-29 see having children as "very important," down from 62% a decade ago, while 58% of men in the same age group prioritise parenthood. This mirrors the U.S., where economic pressures, rising housing costs (median Sydney rents up 11% since 2022) and a 0.9% rental vacancy rate, exacerbate young women's reluctance to start families. The AIFS also noted that 68% of young Australian women report high anxiety, echoing the NBC poll's finding that 66% of Gen Z women feel anxious "most" or "all the time," driven by cost-of-living fears and social media pressures. This anxiety fuels a focus on individual stability over collective responsibilities like child-rearing.
The rejection of marriage and children by a significant cohort of young women threatens demographic and social stability. Australia's fertility rate, at 1.6 births per woman in 2024, is below the replacement level of 2.1, mirroring the U.S.'s projected 1.6 over the next three decades. Without immigration, populations in both nations will shrink, straining pension systems and healthcare as aging populations outnumber working-age contributors. The Australian Bureau of Statistics projects that by 2050, the dependency ratio (retirees to workers) will rise to 49%, up from 34% in 2025, creating economic pressures that could erode social safety nets.
Socially, the decline in family formation risks fracturing community bonds. The AIFS reports that 55% of young Australians feel a "low sense of community," exacerbated by declining marriage rates (down 30% since 2000) and single-person households rising to 26% in 2024. The NBC poll's finding that only 19% of Harris-voting women value making their community proud, underscores a shift toward individualism, particularly among Leftist women. This erodes the social glue that families historically provide, fostering isolation and weakening civic engagement. The 2025 Harvard Youth Poll found only 17% of young Australians report deep social connections, with COVID-era isolation contributing to higher depression rates among Gen Z women.
In Australia, Labor's immigration policies, which saw net migration hit nearly one million in 2022-2023, have been criticized as a band-aid for low birth rates. However, as David Llewellyn-Smith argued on Macrobusiness, high immigration, particularly from India, with 85% of Indian migrants voting Labor in 2022, exacerbates housing shortages and cultural tensions, fuelling public discontent (54-77% of Australians want lower immigration, per 2025 polls). If young women continue to reject family formation, reliance on immigration will intensify, potentially leading to social fragmentation and resentment, as seen in 2025 anti-immigration protests.
The rejection of family by young leftist women, while framed as an exercise of autonomy, paradoxically risks undermining women's liberation in a future "barbarian world." As Widburg suggests, a society that abandons family structures may regress to tribal, male-dominated dynamics where physical strength and resource control dictate power. Historically, women's rights advanced in stable, family-oriented societies with legal frameworks and economic surplus. In a collapsing society with declining birth rates and social cohesion, these frameworks could erode, leaving women vulnerable.
The NBC poll's data on Gen Z men, particularly Trump supporters, valuing family and spiritual grounding (24% prioritise being spiritually grounded) suggests that conservative men may form tight-knit, patriarchal communities to weather economic and social instability. In contrast, Leftist women's focus on individual success, choosing careers and emotional stability, may leave them isolated in a crisis. The 2024 GWI study cited by Newsweek found 80% of Gen Z women report loneliness, compared to 60% of men, a trend amplified by declining marriage rates. In a "barbarian world" of resource scarcity and social breakdown, women without familial or community support may face diminished agency, as physical and economic power reverts to male-dominated groups.
In Australia, this risk is compounded by cultural shifts driven by globalism and Leftism. The push for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and environmental policies like the UN's "30 by 30" initiative, which limits land use, aligns with the individualistic priorities of Leftist women, but strains economic resources. If these policies continue unchecked, as Glenn Beck warned in a September 2025 TheBlaze piece, bureaucratic elites may perpetuate a "long plan" that erodes sovereignty, leaving society vulnerable to collapse. In such a scenario, women's liberation, rooted in legal protections and economic stability, could vanish as tribalism reasserts itself.
Australia needs a bold, "disruptive" leader, akin to Donald Trump to counter these trends. Trump's rejection of deep state advisers, exemplified by his direct call to Vladimir Putin in August 2025, shows how a leader can bypass bureaucratic inertia. In Australia, a similar figure could challenge Labor's immigration-driven model and cultural Leftism by implementing a zero-immigration policy, as Llewellyn-Smith advocates, to stabilise housing and infrastructure. This leader could also promote family-centric policies, such as tax incentives for young parents, to counter the demographic decline driven by young women's rejection of children. The 2024 Canadian population freeze, which reduced rents by 2.3% by August 2025, offers a model for easing economic pressures that fuel anxiety among Gen Z women.
Moreover, addressing the cultural indoctrination highlighted by Widburg, attributed to teachers' unions and leftist ideologies, requires reforming education to emphasise family and community values. A leader like Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, as suggested by Llewellyn-Smith, could champion this, leveraging her Indigenous perspective to unite Australians around shared cultural heritage rather than divisive globalist agendas.
Critics argue that prioritising marriage and children infringes on women's autonomy, with 74% of Gen Z women in the NBC poll identifying as Leftists who value personal freedom. However, autonomy does not preclude societal responsibilities; declining birth rates threaten the very systems (e.g., pensions, healthcare) that enable individual choice. Promoting family need not mean coercion, but could involve economic incentives, as seen in Hungary's 2019 family support policies, which boosted birth rates by 5.5% without restricting women's rights.
Another critique is that high immigration can offset low birth rates, as Labor argues. Yet, polls (54-77% favouring lower immigration) and the housing crisis (79,000-dwelling shortage by 2030) show that immigration exacerbates public strain. A balanced approach, reducing immigration while supporting families, addresses both demographic and social challenges without relying on unsustainable inflows.
The NBC poll's revelation that 74% of Gen Z women, predominantly Leftists, reject marriage and children, while men, especially conservatives, embrace them, signals a cultural divide with dire consequences. In Australia, where similar trends emerge, this risks demographic collapse, social fragmentation, and economic strain, as low birth rates (1.6) and high immigration (one million in 2022-2023) destabilise society. Paradoxically, this rejection of family could end women's liberation in a future "barbarian world" where tribalism undermines legal protections. A Trump-like leader, as Beck envisions, could reverse this by pausing immigration, promoting family values, and dismantling Leftist indoctrination. Without such intervention, Australia faces social collapse, with women's autonomy ironically at stake in a world that reverts to raw power dynamics.