Why a growing number of American women say they want to move abroad

The number of young American women hoping to move to another country is skyrocketing. Four out of 10 women between the ages of 15 and 44 said they would consider leaving the U.S. in a recent Gallup poll — slightly more than double the rate for men in the same age range. 

It’s the highest share, and the widest gender gap, reported since Gallup started asking the question back in 2007. And the reasons behind the shift are both political and personal. 

What’s behind the growing number of women who want to move abroad?

Women cite economic pressure, losing faith in political institutions and quality of life as the most pressing reasons to consider living elsewhere.

That revelation reflects previous research. According to a study by Bankrate, only a quarter of American women say they’re likely to be able to achieve their version of the American dream in today’s U.S. economy, compared to 33% of men. The study attributes systemic issues such as the gender pay gap, a rising cost of living and the accelerating burden of child care costs as reasons for the desire to move.

“American culture has a burning intensity about it,” said Illinois native Claire Naughton, 30, who moved to France in 2018 to work as an au pair. Once abroad, Naughton told Straight Arrow News, she found herself questioning America’s persistent “grind culture.”

Many European countries, including France, have fewer annual working hours, more statutory vacation days and more generous leave policies than the U.S. An OECD study of work-life balance ranked the U.S. at 29th, far below many European countries.

French workers for example, have a legally mandated 35-hour work week and five weeks of paid vacation time provided by their employer. The country also has 16 weeks of paid maternity leave. 

“Women feel caught between expectations from both sides — traditional roles promoted by conservatives, and the pressures of progressive working life,” Georgetown University professor Nadia E. Brown told the BBC.

Due to the lack of maternity leave and return-to-office mandates, American women are leaving the workforce in higher numbers, resulting in less income and fewer career growth opportunities for women.

According to a survey by InterNations, more than half of remote American workers abroad are women, and a study by QZ found that women with more education are likelier to find higher paying jobs abroad than men.

How does motherhood affect women’s decisions to leave the US?

Motherhood doesn’t appear to be a big factor in women’s overall calculus when deciding whether to stay stateside. According to the Harris Poll, 44% of women without children said they would consider moving abroad; the rate among mothers was 40%. 

But for Jennifer Wonder, 41, motherhood has everything to do with her personal plans to move from Indiana to Porto, Portugal. 

“I’m excited about the focus on family,” Wonder told SAN. “I’ll be able to maybe read a book, go to the gym, walk the dog for more than five minutes. I’ll get to take a breath.”

To prepare for the move, Wonder said she took a trip to Portugal in May with her daughter, and connected with a friend on Facebook who moved to Spain to learn the cultural differences between the U.S., Spain and Portugal. Joining the group provided her the blueprint for navigating the bureaucracy of moving to Portugal. 

During her short vacation, locals helped Wonder’s 1-year-old sit in her chair and offered her food. These small interactions felt like a 180-degree difference from many of her experiences at home since becoming a single mother through in vitro fertilization, Wonder told SAN. 

“When I visited Portugal with my daughter, I honestly found the people to be incredibly friendly, warm and willing to help,” she said. “I felt less alone.”

Wonder does not have a job lined up in Portugal. But she qualified for the Portuguese D7 visa, which allows those who move there to live on a monthly passive income of $1,000 from investments or rental income. 

Why are American women drawn to the idea of moving to Portugal?

The D7 visa has been a key enticement for a rapidly increasing number of Americans moving to Portugal. According to the U.K.-based Immigration Advice Service, Portugal is the sixth-most desirable place for Americans to move, with Ireland at No. 1. From 2017 to 2022, nearly 10,000 moved to the country, a 239% increase. 

Jeneya Villatoro, 37, is now among the ranks of such expats, after moving from Portland, Oregon to Ponte De Lima, Portugal this year.

Like Wonder, she sought a different pace and a safer space for her daughter. She was also motivated by mounting bills for her disabled husband and feeling increasingly fed up with American politics. 

“If I didn’t have a daughter I might feel differently, and maybe would have stayed,” she said.

In addition to more relaxed immigration laws compared to the EU, Americans have made Portugal a top destination due to a lower cost of living, more favorable tax policies and a high degree of English proficiency. Roughly 60% of the country speaks English fluently, making it the sixth most English proficient country in the world.

Wonder, Villatoro and others use social media such as Facebook groups to create an online community to connect with other expats. The groups share where to find goods and services, immigration advice, or meetup ideas such as hiking, dining or surfing.

“I think it’s important to have a variety [in your] communities and not just American friends also living abroad. It’s a bit easier to relate to them of course, but it’s been really cool meeting people from all over the world,” Villatoro said.

The female desire to skip out of the country appears to be a uniquely American phenomenon. Among the 38 democratic countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, only 27% of women say they would move to another country permanently.

Gallup found that in the U.S., younger women — those in that 15 to 44 age bracket — have lost more confidence in U.S. institutions than any other group over the past decade. In 2015, these young women earned an average score of 57 points in their confidence level of institutions such as the nation’s military, judicial system and elections. By 2025, the average score was 40. 

Not surprisingly, people with lower confidence scores are more likely to express a desire to leave. At the same time, the confidence score for men in that same age bracket dropped by only one point. 

Will all these women actually move abroad?

While women like Wonder and Villatoro are hopeful that Europe can provide a brighter future for their families, they remain vigilant. No place is perfect for anyone. Many countries are restricting immigration in the wave of rising housing costs and unemployment.

With the support of the far-right Chega party this year, Portugal’s parliament has implemented stricter immigration laws. 

This includes tighter restrictions on family reunification, reserving many work visas for more educated and wealthier migrants, and creating a new police unit to combat immigration and deport those without residence permits.

Migration Policy Institute spokesperson Michelle Mittelstadt said that though the desire to move is high, the process of moving is far more complex and many people who want to move are never able to do so. 

“Gallup, for example, found in 2023 that 16% of the global population surveyed desired to migrate. And in reality, less than 4% of the world’s population lives outside their country of birth,” she said. “In some countries, intentions to migrate can poll in the 25-30% range, and yet only a tiny fraction moves.”

Although the number of people who actually move is small, the effect on the American economy is wide ranging. As the U.S. faces an aging population, fewer women working means fewer people who support taxpayer programs such as Medicaid and Social Security.

The women who spoke to SAN said they remain aware of the political shifts where they live, and are watching how they change in real time.

“I think Americans have this sense that Europe is some sort of progressive haven, but if you look at individual member states it’s a lot more nuanced than that,” Naughton said.

Even as American women drift further to the left, politics do not solely define why women are moving abroad. Nadia E Brown, a Georgetown University professor specializing in gender studies, said women feel burnt out without much payoff.

“Women feel caught between expectations from both sides — traditional roles promoted by conservatives, and the pressures of progressive working life,” Brown said. “Neither path guarantees autonomy or dignity, and that leaves women considering alternatives like moving abroad.”

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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief