Word: singlehood
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...lines. Last year the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University released a report showing that the marriage rate among women had fallen one-third since 1970 and that young women had become more pessimistic about their chances of wedding. "The reality is that marriage is now the interlude and singlehood the state of affairs," says Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, a co-director of the center. For this summer's study, Whitehead chose to focus on blue-collar women in their 20s and expected more traditional attitudes. However, she found these women too were focused more on goals like college degrees, entrepreneurship...
...embrace of singlehood is, in some ways, a logical result of the expanding possibilities for women brought on by the women's movement. "Women get addicted to the possibilities of their lives, the idea that on any given day you have the freedom to do this or that," explains Melissa Roth, author of On the Loose, a chronicle of a year in the life of three thirtysomething women. And so, while still looking for love, many women today are slow to let go of their space and schedules for the daily compromises--and sacrifices--of marriage...
...surprisingly, many conservatives are disturbed at this growing acceptance of singlehood and its implied rejection of marriage. Danielle Crittenden, author of What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us, argues that women have set themselves up for disappointment, putting off marriage until their 30s only to find themselves unskilled in the art of compatibility and surrounded by male peers looking over their Chardonnays at women in their 20s. "Modern people approach marriage like it's a Bosnia-Serbia negotiation. Marriage is no longer as attractive to men," she says. "No one's telling college girls it's easier to have kids...
...Singlehood being what it is, my current guilty pleasure on a late Saturday night is settling in front on my TV and watching the terminally kitsch show "Your Big Break," another game-show import from Britain, which comes on after "Saturday Night Live." People come on the show in ordinary clothes, go behind a screen of smoke and emerge dressed as the singer they're about to try to sing like-Patsy Cline, Elvis, Janet Jackson, you get the idea...
...Jaycox offers the middle-aged or older woman upbeat advice on how to maneuver successfully as a single. She also discusses the next set of questions that arise: Where should I live? Should I start a new career? Should I get married again? Women experiencing the dislocation of sudden singlehood will find Jaycox's book a helpful companion...