Trump supporters at rally
Trump supporters rally outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. in this undated photo. A new survey finds Gen Z men who backed Donald Trump are more likely to define success through children, marriage and faith, contrasting sharply with women who prioritise emotional stability and financial independence. Conectas

Ask a 25-year-old woman what success looks like, and she'll probably mention feeling emotionally stable and financially secure. Ask a young bloke who voted for Trump the same question, and he'll talk about kids and church. That's the picture emerging from NBC News's massive survey of 30,000 Americans, which found that men and women under 30 are living in entirely different universes when it comes to life goals.

Mental Health Takes Centre Stage for Young Women

Here's something that would've baffled previous generations: about a third of women aged 18 to 29 reckon emotional stability is one of the three most essential things in life. Not marriage. Not babies. Just feeling okay in their own heads.

The numbers get even more interesting when you look at politics. Women who voted for Harris basically tossed traditional milestones out the window. Marriage came 11th out of 13 possible success markers. Having kids? Dead last at number 12. These women aren't just delaying family life; they're saying it might not matter at all.

You can almost hear their mothers asking what happened. But for women who came of age with therapy apps on their phones and mental health days at work, this makes perfect sense. They watched the generation before them burn out trying to have it all. Now they're picking what actually matters to them, and surprise, it's not what anyone expected.

The blokes? Different story entirely. Most young men barely gave emotional stability a second thought, parking it way down their priority list.

Conservative Lads Double Down on Dad Life

Young men who backed Trump are zigging whilst everyone else zags. Top of their success list? Having children. Then comes marriage. Then faith. It's like they're reading from a 1950s playbook whilst everyone else has moved on to a different sport entirely.

What's fascinating is how hard they're leaning into this. At a time when their mates are delaying fatherhood or skipping it altogether, these conservative guys are saying that's literally the most important thing they could do with their lives. Emotional well-being barely registers, landing second to last in their rankings according to the survey data.

Even conservative women aren't entirely on board with this vision. Sure, they're more traditional than their liberal sisters, but Trump-supporting women still only ranked having children sixth. That's quite a gap from their male counterparts, who put it first. Seems like even in conservative circles, young women are having second thoughts about whether motherhood equals success.

Everyone Agrees Money Is Essential (Obviously)

If there's one thing that unites Gen Z across all these divides, it's cold, hard cash. The NBC News Decision Desk research, done with SurveyMonkey from mid-August through early September, found pretty much everyone put financial independence and career satisfaction in their top three.

Can you blame them? This lot graduated into chaos. Economic meltdowns, pandemic madness, houses that cost ten times what their parents paid. They're not being materialistic; they're being realistic. Whatever version of success you're chasing, you need money to make it happen.

The pragmatism is almost refreshing. Previous generations could afford to be romantic about following their dreams or finding themselves. Gen Z knows you need a decent salary first, then you can figure out the rest.

Politicians Haven't Got a Clue What to Do

Picture the poor campaign strategist trying to write messaging for 'young voters' after seeing these results. Half your audience wants emotional support and reproductive freedom. The other half wants traditional families and Sunday services. Good luck finding a slogan for that.

Democrats can speak to young women about mental health and personal autonomy all day long. It clearly works. Republicans can bang on about family values to young conservative men. That works too. But what about everyone who doesn't fit these neat boxes?

What about the progressive lad who wants kids but also therapy? Or the conservative woman who loves her church but also needs anxiety medication? They exist, in huge numbers, and nobody knows how to talk to them.

The old playbook of treating young voters as one big group is properly dead.

This Is Going to Get Messy

Let's be honest about what happens when half of young women say emotional stability matters more than marriage, whilst a chunk of young men say having kids is the absolute pinnacle of achievement. That's not just a polling difference. That's a fundamental mismatch in how people see their futures.

We're potentially looking at a generation where vast numbers of women opt out of motherhood entirely, focusing instead on their mental health and careers. Meanwhile, you've got young conservative men whose entire identity is wrapped up in becoming fathers. The maths doesn't work, does it?

This isn't just about dating apps being awkward. It's about birth rates, housing markets, workplace cultures, everything. When people can't even agree on what a good life looks like, building a society together gets complicated.

The survey pulled responses from about 3,000 Gen Z participants out of a larger pool of 30,000 adults. They picked their top three success measures from 13 options, everything from home ownership to travel to faith.