I don't think religion is the major factor there. Losing religion is lagging behind these social changes. I mean, anecdotally, I'm not religious and my wife is

I don't think religion is the major factor there. Losing religion is lagging behind these social changes. I mean, anecdotally, I'm not religious and my wife is fiercely anti-religions and we have 3 kids and she doesn't work. We just decided to step outside the rat race we felt we were in and lose some of the lifestyle people seemed to think was so important - moved away from the city, only had one car, didn't take overseas holidays. There are quite a few people in the area I'm in who have made the same choices, some are religious, some are not. And we're still in touch with plenty of folks who match what you describe and they don't want to give up the career/city/car/lifestyle. Again, some of those people are religious and some are not. You could make broad strokes about the relationship between religion and social culture but I think in your comment you have the relationship inverted. When you have religious freedom religions are an expression of the social culture of their members, they are not an enforcement of the social culture on their members.