In this monologue from The Dennis Prager Show, Dennis Prager argues that married women enjoy superior physical and mental health compared to single women, citing research that shows higher rates of anxiety and depression among unmarried women. He attributes the rise in mental health problems and the decline in marriage rates to the influence of modern education and liberal ideology, criticizing teachers, drag‑queen story hours, and progressive curricula for encouraging young women to avoid marriage. Prager invokes Jewish tradition that venerates teachers, contrasting it with what he sees as contemporary disrespect for parental and educational authority. He presents a series of statistics: about one‑third of adult women experience mental health issues versus one‑fifth of men; 41 % of women aged 18‑25 report anxiety; depression rates rose from 26 % to 36 % between 2017‑2023; only 28 per 1,000 women were married in 2021 versus 76 per 1,000 in 1965; and only 47 % of women aged 18‑55 were married in 2022. He contrasts the United States with Israel, noting Israel’s higher happiness rankings and higher birth rates among Jewish and Muslim women. Prager also critiques Betty Friedan, blaming her feminist work for damaging marriage norms. The overall narrative calls for a cultural shift back toward traditional family structures, suggesting an “exodus” from liberal influences toward marriage and child‑bearing as solutions to women’s declining wellbeing.
Chapters
Married women have better heart and mental health than single women. Huh, do you believe that? They're even healthier. Yet young women are choosing to forego marriage at all-time highs thanks to the morons who teach them at college, high school, and elementary school. They are, they're morons. Most teachers are unimpressive, and it's so frightening for me to say that. It's one of the most difficult things I say. I was raised in the Jewish tradition that reveres teachers as much as parents. Do you know that on the Day of Atonement, there is a series of sins for which one bangs one's chest, not hard, but symbolically. They're called Al Chet, for the sin of, for the sin of, for the sin of, for the sin of. One of them is zilzul horim umorim, for mocking parents and teachers. It's a religious prayer on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. Did you mistreat a teacher? That is how revered in Jewish tradition teachers have been. They have taken that reverence and spit on it. Hey, let's have Let's have— so what's the call again? The story hour with the guys. Drag queen. Yes. Why don't I remember drag queen? I think part of the reason is because it doesn't make full sense anyway. Drag queen story hour. Yes, let me teach you about racism and sexism and homophobia and Islamophobia and xenophobia. And of course, we're gonna go on strike, we teachers, if you don't close down the classes. Like the Chicago Teachers Association. The US is battling an epidemic of sad, anxious young women. Despite the surge in our opportunities and freedoms over the past 50 years, it appears we are more depressed than ever. Obviously written by a woman, Dr. Wendy Wang. Director of research at the Institute for Family Studies. Studies suggest that around a third of all adult women suffer some sort of mental health problems, compared to a fifth of men. You could see a lot of these mental health problems in women by the screamers at all these demonstrations they attend. Yeah. Pro-Hamas is the latest. Environment. The moronic— what was the day of the million— was it the Million Women March when Donald Trump was inaugurated? My sense was if you're married to a woman who went on that march, and you, in your heart, you didn't think it was a big deal, that because you don't think women are all that persecuted in America, and you don't think that the Trump comments were of particular importance, and they were not because they were made in private. This is a wisdom I learned. I had more wisdom when when I was in middle school than the vast majority of people who write for the New York Times today. And so did all of my classmates. It's very important that I add that. I'm not bragging. I'm bragging about my education. I knew that what people said in private did not matter nearly as much as what they said in public. It was taught to me. I didn't figure this out by getting older. I was taught this. I was taught wisdom because I went to a religious school, religious Christian schools, real, real religious ones though. Most Christian schools have little to do with Christianity. Most Jewish schools have little to do with Judaism because the left has taken over in so many cases. You are married to someone who went on the Million Women March? My heart goes out to you. Unless you agree with her, in which case my heart doesn't go out to you. You deserve her. A third of all adult women suffer some sort of mental health problems. Yeah. You know where this isn't true, incidentally? In Israel. Israel, which before October 7th was regularly rated as one of the happiest countries in the world. It is also one of the only countries in the Western world which, in which the population reproduces itself. Jewish women and certainly Muslim women in Israel give birth to a number, quite a number of children. Far more than Jews in America do, in the case of the Jews in Israel. The Jews of America are preoccupied with liberal ideologies. This is particularly apparent, she writes, in the 18 to 25 age group, 41% of which are said to suffer anxiety according to Harvard University research. 41% of women ages 18 to 25. That's a lot. That's almost half, huh? Over the last 6 years, the number of women reporting depression increased 10% from 26 to 36% in just 6 years, 2017 to 2023, according to Gallup poll of over 5,000 U.S. adults. With 20 years under my belt as a sociologist studying the lifestyle patterns of Americans as well as their fulfillment over time, I believe I have stumbled on one possible explanation of the sadness. It might appear a controversial take Too few women are getting married. That's right, only 28 in 1,000 women were married in the U.S. in 2021, compared to 76 in 1,000 in 1965. Those poor things, according to Betty Friedan. What, what year did you want to look up on The Feminine Mystique? Was written. It would be fascinating to see what year that really, really pathetic book was written. I read it recently, within the last 2 years. It was morose. I may have mentioned to you that I, when in my late 20s, I debated Betty Friedan in Los Angeles. 1963. Oh man, is that perfect? She wrote it and it was published in 1963, and in 1965 the number of women getting married peaked. There are not many people who could say they did as much damage as Betty Friedan. She was miserable, and like most miserable people They want others to join them because misery loves company. There are studies to show that only 47% of women ages 18 to 55 were married in the U.S. in 2022. So that means less than half or fewer than half of women under 55 were married in the United States in 2022? Wow, that's astonishing. 72% in 1970. This is U.S. Census data. So 47% under 55— women under 55 were married in 2022? They were either never married or divorced and not remarried, or rare— more, much more rarely widowed and never remarried. Yes. How many parents would rather say my 25-year-old daughter is married and she has a child on the way Or my 25-year-old daughter just got a PhD at Princeton. That's, that's the question. That's the genesis. What we need now is an exodus. How's that? For the full episode of The Dennis Prager Show, go to pragertopia.com, sign up, and become a full member.
