Generation Wed – are the new Gen Z influencers nailing it in terms of God’s design for women?

There’s a quiet cultural U-turn happening amongst Gen Z women right now — and its focus is on more traditional life milestones such as getting married, having children, and hosting dinner parties. Women are getting married and having children earlier than is common in modern Britain (first-time mothers are 30 on average). And some of them are known as ‘Generation Wed.’

These women aren’t submissive tradwives who want to be solely homemakers and do 100% of the child-rearing while their husbands go and work to provide. Gen Wed are modern, educated women who are on board with skipping the go-mad-and-party-to-get-it-out-of-your-system season of life and going straight to marriage and building a family life.

READ MORE: Gen Z Christian women want to date like Jane Austen’s characters

The movement is being led by influencers such as Saffie Michaelis, 27, who has 211,000 followers on Instagram (@‌saff_michaelis).

The movement is being led by influencers such as Saffie Michaelis, 27, who has 211,000 followers on Instagram (@‌saff_michaelis). Engaged at 18, married at 22, and having a baby at 24, Saffie’s content is about motherhood, good food, hosting, and luxury London life. ‘I don’t veer anywhere near tradwife,’ says Saffie Michaelis, 27, as she posts sponsored content on days out with her two-year-old daughter, recipes, running ‘bougie errands’ and shopping. ‘But I want to build things in the traditional way – the engagement, the marriage, the home, and then babies.’

Generation Wed are women who have careers, earn their own money, live independent lives, and celebrate domesticity, marriage, and mothering at the same time. As a Christian working mum of three, I find the perspective refreshing. These families treat marriage as something valuable. Most of my non-Christian friends delayed marriage or just preferred to live together, saying that it was the same as marriage (it’s not!), and they didn’t need a piece of paper to prove their love (you don’t, but committing in front of God is completely different).

READ MORE: Friendship, Romance and the “Relationship Recession”

It’s also wonderful to see how Generation Wed celebrates family and motherhood instead of treating having children as an inconvenience. The Bible is clear that children are a gift from the Lord, not a burden.

Generation Wed has surprised our culture because it doesn’t portray motherhood as less of an ambition than careers. It also reminds us that choosing marriage and motherhood first doesn’t mean we’re less successful.

It’s fascinating how Generation Wed is pushing back against the idea that your twenties are all about ‘living your best life’. Whether it’s travel, partying, climbing the career ladder, or ‘finding yourself,’ these women have found peace with skipping it all. It affirms that building a life with a husband and having children is a valid choice and a fulfilling blessing, which, of course, is why God designed marriage on the basis of mutual love, sacrifice, service, and covenant.

READ MORE: I want to get married, but I don’t want to be a wife

The well-known verse Psalm 31 celebrates the women who resemble a Generation Wed woman – a wife, mother, homemaker, businesswoman, investor, and host. 

The well-known verse Psalm 31 celebrates the women who resemble a Generation Wed woman – a wife, mother, homemaker, businesswoman, investor, and host. Of course, not all Christian women are all of these things. And here lies the gap – and the main difference between Christian women and Generation Wed. While it’s the list mentioned in Psalm 31 that identifies Gen Wed, for us as women of faith, these are merely ways we live out our faith. They are not the main focus.

Just like with every cultural trend that ebbs and flows with different generations, we need to examine what drives it. And whilst some of the values of Gen Wed align with Christianity, the ‘why’ behind them may not. The content I have witnessed from Gen Wed focuses heavily on money and financial goals. Saffie Michaelis shared that she wants two children because she wants a certain lifestyle for them. She has detailed financial goals to put them through private school, university, and to help each of them onto the property ladder. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with that.

But as a Christian wife and working mum, I am reminded that my focus is very different. As women of faith, whether we marry or have kids, our goal is always to ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God’. This focus is the very foundation of everything I do. Choosing marriage, motherhood, and family isn’t only giving up my ambition; it’s part of God’s design for my life – but I do it all in submission to Him.