11 Reasons Women Are Fleeing the USA

While the number of people emigrating from the United States grows, there’s one thing the news isn’t reporting: many of these people are women.

The number of solo woman expats is soaring, while married women work to convince reticent husbands to move abroad. Here are some of the reasons women are fleeing the USA:

1. Abortion Care

Most women view abortion as necessary healthcare, especially in instances where our lives are in danger or the inability to terminate an unviable fetus may cause weeks or months of trauma. As a woman, having to go through this undermines our ability to take care of ourselves. We may not be able to work or function or care for our other children, and we may need mental health care for years. Not to mention the threat of prison time.

Being forced to give birth means a woman may need to rely on an unreliable partner or toxic family members to get by, and raising unwanted children is unhealthy for everyone involved—especially the children.

➤ Countries where abortion is legal

2. Gun Violence

Mass shootings and deaths in the U.S. have quadrupled in the past decade. A staggering number of these events take place at schools. Mothers need to be able to send their children to school so that we can earn money while the children learn and socialize, but we live in terror of what might happen.

Most mothers are not able to give up their careers to become school teachers and full-time caregivers, but in other countries, school shootings are shocking and unheard of.

3. Healthcare Costs

Women spend billions more on healthcare than men do, so we bear a larger percentage of the rising costs of medical care and drugs. We’re also more likely to be advocating for their children, like fighting to get insurance companies to cover expected services.

➤ Guide to expat healthcare

4. Food Quality

As a by-product of being judged from a young age on their physical appearance and weight, women know more about the ingredients in food and can be more health-conscious. Many women are aware that ingredients like high fructose corn syrup and dough conditioners are banned in other countries, and know that people who move abroad often see improvements in their health without even trying.

5. Work-Life Balance

Other countries, especially those in the European Union, offer worker protections and benefits that contribute to a better quality of life and more time with family. For example, European workers get a minimum of four weeks of paid vacation, by law, and the average work week is 37.5 hours.

6. Social Services

Social services, especially in European countries, are meant to make it easier and safer to have a family. Those countries know that children who are able to eat when they need to, receive education, and spend plenty of time with parents on maternity and paternity leave before heading to (free) daycare grow up to be happy, healthy adults. Happy, healthy adults are key to a successful nation.

7. Art & Beauty

Not all women prefer form over function, or anything of the sort. But we do appreciate beauty around us in art, architecture, and design, and we hate how ugly America can be for no reason other than corporate profits and lack of imagination.

8. Community

Everything about the United States lends itself to isolation. Sprawling suburbs, car culture, unwalkable cities, and McMansions encourage us to work our jobs, stock up on groceries, and hunker down at home. In many other countries, the concept of “third place” (a place to hangout other than work and home), extended family relationships, daily shopping habits, and population density create a sense of vibrancy and community.

9. Cost of Living

Women still earn 18% less than men do, creating a kind of inflation that applies only to us. The United States is the 5th-most expensive housing market in the world, and middle-aged Americans have less than a tenth the wealth of baby boomers, so financial stability is fleeting.

If we’ve also had more children than we want, spend more on healthcare than in other countries, and have no social services, it’s that much harder to survive.

10. Safety for Kids

In addition to school shootings and other gun violence, moms are concerned about the focus of many state legislatures. Especially in red states, those bodies are seeking to ban books, curtail teachers’ abilities to handle subjects like gay parents or racism, and keep kids from events like pride parades and drag queen story times.

However, data from actual arrest records shows that the biggest-known threats to kids are as follows:

1. Friends & family
2. Pastors & other religious workers
3. Teachers (not from teaching—from assaults)
4. Police
5. Coaches
6. Babysitters & daycare workers
7. Politicians (83% Republicans, 5% Democrats)
8. Doctors

11. Men

American men have more guns than in any other country, and they still control most of the power here. Some women fear men, how they vote, and the affect they’ll have on democracy in the next years. Although the patriarchy is in charge almost everywhere, few countries seem to have the testosterone-fueled powder keg that we’re experiencing here.

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