Women Are Leaving the Church but Not Their Faith

For the first time in modern American history, women under 25 are less religiously affiliated than their male peers.

This surprising shift, identified by the Barna Group’s Gen Z research, marks a stark reversal from long-standing trends. Historically, women have consistently outnumbered men in church attendance, spiritual engagement, and volunteerism. But that’s changing and fast.

“You’d ordinarily see younger women being more religiously active,” said Barna President David Kinnaman. “But we’re seeing that flip-flop.”

The reasons behind this trend are complex, but one thing is increasingly clear young women aren’t walking away from God. They’re walking away from institutions that haven’t made room for who they are becoming.

Not a Crisis of Faith A Crisis of Representation

While Sunday attendance and volunteering have seen declines, especially since the pandemic, spiritual interest has not. In fact, Barna’s data shows increased openness to Jesus, to prayer, and to justice rooted in faith. But that spiritual interest isn’t translating into institutional involvement especially for women.

What’s changed?

Over the past decade, the church has been rocked by highly publicized abuse scandals, internal debates over women’s leadership, and renewed frustration with gender roles that often feel more rooted in mid-century domesticity than the teachings of Jesus.

Many churches still frame the ideal woman as a wife and mother and little more.

This emphasis can leave single, career-focused, or childless women feeling sidelined. As society has embraced delayed marriage, professional ambition, and chosen singleness as valid, even noble, paths, many churches have struggled to acknowledge these choices as equally faithful expressions of womanhood.

The message received is often implicit but unmistakable until a woman becomes a wife or mother, she’s not quite complete.

Forgotten Women and a Misread Bible

Beth Allison Barr, author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood, argues that many Christian ideas about “biblical womanhood” are more cultural than theological. She points out that patriarchy isn’t a divine design it’s a consequence of sin.

“Patriarchy exists in the Bible because the Bible was written in a patriarchal world,” Barr writes. “What is surprising is how many biblical passages and stories undermine, rather than support, patriarchy.”

Barr suggests the real issue isn’t the absence of female leaders in church history it’s that their leadership has been forgotten or erased. Women have led, discipled, and served with courage for centuries. The problem is that their stories have often been reinterpreted or ignored.

“Women’s stories throughout history have been covered up, neglected, or retold to recast women as less significant than they really were,” she says.

The Masculinity Myth

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, in Jesus and John Wayne, highlights how certain evangelical leaders have promoted a hypermasculine version of Christianity that elevates patriarchy and submission while sidelining justice and compassion.

This vision often presents male leadership as essential and unquestionable, portraying strong, authoritative men as protectors even when those same structures leave women unprotected and unheard.

“In the end,” Du Mez writes, “this was a vision that promised protection for women but left them without defense, one that worshiped power and turned a blind eye to justice.”

Walking Out Not Away

Barna’s research reveals a notable drop in female volunteerism across all age groups — a steep decline that began during the pandemic and hasn’t rebounded.

“It’s almost as though women have said, ‘We’re done being your volunteers and being the backbone of all these things you say are important,’” said Kinnaman.

The message isn’t rejection of Jesus. It’s rejection of roles that reduce women to background support or expect endless unpaid labor. It’s a quiet protest, a silent plea see us, value us, and make space for our full humanity.

A Church Big Enough for Her

This moment isn’t about abandoning faith. It’s about re-examining the structures that house it.

The question is not whether women still love God the research says they do. The question is whether the church can offer a story big enough to include them not as future wives or behind-the-scenes volunteers, but as full participants in God’s mission here and now.

“What if patriarchy isn’t divinely ordained but is a result of human sin?” Barr asks. “Could it be that, instead of telling women to be silent like the Roman world did, Paul was actually telling men that, in the world of Jesus, women were allowed to speak?”

If so, the church’s calling isn’t to reinforce silence it’s to raise up voices that have been silenced for too long.

Kinnaman put it simply: “If women are struggling, it doesn’t matter whether that’s 10 women or 10,000. If they’re not around to contribute and share life, we’d better pay attention.”

Listening and Leading Forward

The church has a decision to make. Will it continue casting a narrow vision of womanhood or will it embrace the rich, biblical truth that God calls women to lead, speak, disciple, and minister alongside men?

Faithful women are not deconstructing belief they are disentangling it from cultural baggage it was never meant to carry.

And for the church to thrive in this generation and the next, it must listen.

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