It was in 2022, when Americans were reeling from the news that the supreme court had overturned Roe v Wade, that Jen Barnett got a firsthand glimpse of just how viable her new business could be.

Days before the court ruling, she had launched a website aimed at Americans looking to move abroad. As confusion and consternation set in over what the ruling meant for US women, Barnett watched traffic to her website steadily tick upward. “We had this huge spike.”

It was all she needed to co-found her company, Expatsi, which has since helped thousands of Americans looking to move abroad. Women remain a key part of her demographic, making up around two-thirds of her clients. “If it weren’t for young women, this business wouldn’t exist,” she said.

Her experience offers a hint of what appears to be a growing gender gap among Americans: last year a Gallup poll found that 40% of American women aged 15 to 44 said they would move abroad permanently if they had the chance.

While the sample size was just 1,000 people, Gallup noted that the findings were a striking contrast to previous iterations of the same poll; from 2014 onwards, the number of women in the US who said they wanted to leave had soared fourfold. When it came to young men, however, the numbers had held steady at around 19%, giving rise to what Gallup described as the widest recorded gender divide of any country polled.

The findings come as Americans appear to be leaving the country in record numbers. From London to Lisbon, relocation firms have reported a surge in inquiries from Americans, while the first two months of last year saw US applications for Irish passports climb to their highest level in a decade. France last year reported a rise in the number of long-stay visa requests from Americans, while in March, the number of Americans who had solicited British citizenship in the 12 months before surged to its highest since record-keeping began in 2004.

The Guardian spoke to five US women who in recent years had uprooted their lives to move to Latin America and Europe, as well as one who was planning to move imminently. While all of them had long dreamed of a life abroad, they cited anxieties over gun violence, the quest for a better work-life balance and the turbulence of US politics as the tipping points.

Few were surprised to hear that as many as 40% of American women were dreaming of doing the same. “It has become harder and harder and more dangerous to even exist as a woman in the US,” said Emily Burt, 32, who moved to Ecuador with her husband and two young children earlier this year. “I think our generation, and even some gen Z women, we’ve just become disillusioned with the story that was sold of American exceptionalism and best country in the world.”

While some women continue to make strides in the US, Burt said it felt like things had moved backward overall. “The way women are spoken about, not by everyone and everywhere of course, but some of the loudest voices of influence – without naming names – are very disrespectful,” said Burt. “And that trickles down to how regular people that you interact with think that they can speak about, and speak to and treat women.”

All of this was playing out against the backdrop of social media, where women were getting an unprecedented view of what life could be like in other countries. “Why wouldn’t they dream big and want to go places where they can feel respected and safe and the opportunities are open and endless?” Burt asked.

She and her husband decided to move after her oldest child started kindergarten in Texas. Suddenly the exhaustion of balancing life and work was compounded by the stress of active shooter drills. “It was fairly often that we were getting threats, but then they were unfounded. But it doesn’t even matter if they were real or not,” she said. “That anxiety is still there.”

Others said the tumultuous politics of the US had played a role. “The politics were just like fuel for the fire,” said Jenelle Jones, who last year left Tennessee in search of walkable cities, accessible public transport and abundant community spaces across the Atlantic.

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“Everybody’s like, ‘It’s because of Trump, right?’ It’s yes and no, though it just kind of confirmed my decision,” said Jones, 39, who was renting an apartment near Tirana, Albania, after a year of travelling through Europe in a camper van. “The US has always had inherent racism and classism, propaganda – all this stuff that’s built into it. But it’s never been so in-your-face before.”

The result was the kinds of tensions that had convinced Courtney Schuyler, 43, and her wife that the time had come for a move, rather than waiting until retirement as they had initially planned. “Walking around the United States when you know you might not be as protected or you might be judged a little bit more harshly or openly than years before – there’s always a level of stress on your shoulders when you’re part of a marginalised community,” said Schuyler.

Their three dogs in tow, they traded their lives in the Tampa Bay area for Madrid last year. “It’s almost like being able to take a deep breath again. So that feels good, but it is so sad because there are a lot of people we still love and care about in the United States, and those we can emphathise with.”

All of the women were swift to point out that their new lives came with a different set of challenges, from language barriers to being far from their family and loved ones. “Being American abroad, it’s an endless cycle of trying to find ways to get a visa,” said Alexandra Blydenburgh, 27, who left the US more than four years ago and had moved between various countries in Europe.

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“On social media, lots of people are like, ‘Everyone move abroad; it’s perfect.’ But I think it’s not necessarily for everyone. It is difficult,” she said, citing the often-lower salaries in Europe as one example.

For her, however, these were trade-offs she was prepared to make. “A lot of people say, ‘Why move abroad? Why not try to work on or solve the issues you have in your home country?’ But in the US, I really feel like we’re in a place politically where that’s not really possible – in my lifetime I don’t see that the US could ever become a country where there’s free healthcare and this emphasis on work-life balance and six weeks of paid vacation.”

It’s the kind of shift Barnett had watched play out among those looking to go abroad. Before 2024, most of her clients had pointed to adventure and personal growth as their reason for wanting to leave. Others said they were interested in lowering their cost of living.

But since Donald Trump was re-elected in November 2024, “the number one reason is politics,” she said. “That November 6th was the biggest day we’ve ever had on our side. It was the craziest. Our lives just changed dramatically overnight.”

Her company has since become part of a blossoming industry, from She Hit Refresh, an online community for women over the age of 30 who are looking to move abroad to Blaxit Global, which caters to Black Americans, and GTFO tours, which tends to draw critics of Trump and his administration.

Barnett saw little indication that the trend would reverse, particularly as the political climate in the US remained fraught. “Listen, we would rather have democracy than the business,” said Barnett. “But we are going to seize the moment and make sure we can help as many Americans as we can.”