wng.org
2026-02-11
While speaking at a recent event, I was asked a question that I had never heard put so bluntly before--and its bluntness was the point.
A father raised his hand and asked: How do we keep our daughters from going woke? He wasn't sneering. He wasn't angry. He was worried and earnest. And he was perceptive enough to name what many parents and pollsters are quietly noticing: a cultural current that seems to be pulling young women, in particular, toward ideological extremes marked by grievance, emotionalism, and a commitment to progressivist social justice.
The answers I gave that night--and the ones I've refined after giving it deeper consideration--are not meant to be insulting or patronizing to young women. Some of them apply just as much to men as they do women. They are about paying attention to the hidden forces of formation, of the necessity for vigilance in the face of daunting emotional pressures, and the necessity of self-awareness to keep one's perspective balanced.