By PNW Staff
September 22, 2026
Young women are navigating a different cultural environment.
Barna points to several possible contributors to their declining engagement, including changing attitudes toward traditional church structures, leadership failures and different social and family pressures.
There is also a striking political correlation in Gallup’s numbers, although correlation should not be confused with cause.
Since 2022-2023, religious attendance increased among young Republican men and women and modestly among young Democratic men, while Gallup found little change among young Democratic women. Gallup notes that political identity may therefore be playing a role in the overall gender divergence.
Whatever combination of cultural, political and spiritual forces is responsible, the result is increasingly difficult to ignore.
Young men and young women are no longer moving together religiously.