A growing number of American women are fleeing the United States in search of a better life in Europe.
Nearly half of American expats working abroad in 2021 were females, according to a survey by InterNations, as remote work became more prevalent and an increasing number of countries started offering digital nomad visas.
The average age of the expats were 43, with many looking to move to a country that aligns with their values, ranging from universal health care to fleeing the polarized political landscape of the United States, USA Today reports.
‘They find that Europe offers a political climate that feels less changed, less divided and generally more tolerant,’ said Cepee Tabibian, who founded She Hit Refresh – an online community of American women over the age of 30 who are looking to move to Europe.
‘This is also a big driver for our intersectionally-marginalized members, such as our LGBTQ+ members nd our black members who find more welcoming environments and policies in Europe than in the US.’
Among those drawn to the European lifestyle was Dee Segler, who moved to the Netherlands – a country she had never been to before – on Monday.
She told USA today she had dreamed of living abroad since she was a teenager and went on a school trip to Europe with her French club.
‘I made a promise to myself at 18 years old: I was going to live abroad,’ Segler said. ‘But life just kind of happened. I went to school, got married and had kids.’
Over the years though, her situation changed.
She is now divorced with children living on their own, and was laid off from her tech job a few years ago. She then went back to school, but could only get a job in a junior role and struggled to make ends meet amid the rising prices in Seattle.
Segler eventually came across the She Hit Refresh Facebook group, which had over 10,000 members, and in June she attended its online training about European visa options, learning how to obtain a two-year visa to the Netherlands as a self=employed American under the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty.
She ultimately decided it was time to go in the summer of 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.
‘You have to understand, I nearly died after pregnancy complications, and I have two loved ones who nearly died after pregnancy complications, so this is personal for me,’ Segler told USA Today.
Soon after, the Supreme Court also ruled that former President Donald Trump has presidential immunity.
Just a few days later, she reached out to Dutch immigration lawyers.
Cindy Sheahan, who backpacked the world before settling down in Portugal in 2022 and just moved to Sicily in October, said she sought out life in Europe due to the ‘increasingly polarized and divisive climate in the US since 2016.’
She started backpacking right around the time Trump first took office, though her move was also preceded by her divorce.
‘Another Trump term is non-negotiable for me,’ she said.
Sheahan ultimately found She Hit Refresh when she was looking for a way to permanently move to Europe, ultimately qualifying for Italian citizenship by way of her ancestry.
Other women have been drawn to Europe for its safety, after the 2024 Global Peace Index ranked the US 131st safest out of 162, while countries like Iceland, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands earned spots in the top 20.
Rates for age-adjusted firearm deaths in the US are also much higher than in Europe – 19 times higher than in France and 77 times more than in Germany, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
For Tabibian, like Segler, moving to Europe was something she had long dreamed of.
She felt ready to leave her tech job in 2015 and was eager to move to Spain – where she taught English years earlier while earning her master’s degree.
But going back to teaching English felt like a ‘step backward’ at her age, when ‘everyone looks like they have it all together.’
When she was looking for resources on making a move to Europe, though, Tabibian said: ‘I just didn’t find resources made for me.
‘They didn’t understand the challenges I was facing moving as a woman who had life under my belt and responsibility.
‘There is a lot of information for someone doing a gap year at university – a very different life point,’ she said, as she wondered whether she would lose her career if she moved to Europe and what would happen to any children or if she had a mortgage.
Once she was in Madrid, though, Tabibian met other female expats and learned more about visa options for staying in Spain.
By 2017, she started a Facebook group in response to friends and colleagues asking her about the move, and eventually She Hit Refresh became a blog and ran its first retreat in 2019.
It now offers four-day live master class trainings on Zoom that breaks down moving to Europe and helps attendees develop a personalized moving plan.
It also offers a monthly membership to fast-track people’s moves, including resources and the ability to connect women for support.
Tabibian now says She Hit Refresh is an important resource for women looking to move to Europe.
‘There’s this pressure to get settled down and have a family and have your life figured out, and those of us out there who want something else, we can feel other or maybe weird about making a different choice,’ she explained.
‘When I made my move, I felt like a lot of questions I got was a double standard, and maybe if I were a man, people wouldn’t be asking me the same questions in terms of safety or would I be able to get married or have kids.’