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Here's a statistic that might get your attention: there are more single women in America today than there are married women, according to a recent New York Times analysis of census data. It doesn’t seem like too many people are surprised.
Tamara Jackson has spent many years in front of a book, studying to become a radiologist, and she is now completing her residency at Vanderbilt University Hospital. Tamara is 33 years old and single. She says her career, and her training to become a doctor has been her priority.
"This training just happens to occur when women are traditionally getting married and having kids,” she says.
Tamara says she enjoys her independence, and she is not alone. 51% of women are now considered single according to the latest census information. But Tamara still wonders what people will think of her single status.
"I worry people hear I am a 30-something woman living alone and that will somehow conjure images of Bridget Jones and I'm at home eating ice cream by the gallon, reading self-help books about how to find a man, and drowning my sorrows in vodka and Celine Dion, but its not like that all,” she says.
Linda Manning, the director of Vanderbilt's Women Center, thinks that negative stereotype of single women is disappearingbecause there are so many of them. "This is a trend that has been occurring for quite some time,” Manning says.
But, she says, these statistics are not a sign that marriage is disappearing; its just being delayed. She says women are marrying older. In 1950, 42% 15-24-year-old women were married. Today less than 16% are.
"The period of adolescence is taking longer for most people,” Manning says. “They are living at home longer, they are getting more education. They're delaying marriage for all of those reasons."
She says the numbers are also higher because women are living longer, andbecause they include all women who are living alone.
"Many women are married, but their spouses are not at home,” she says. “They may be deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan and those are included in these statistics, as well."
Professor Manning says women are now living with men by choice and not for financial security, and Tamara agrees.
"Marriage is a choice, even a luxury for women of this generation, as opposed to a necessity as maybe it was for my mother's and grandmother's generations,” she says. She says when she gets married, she wants to make sure she does it right the first time.
Thisstudy has some groups concerned, fearing that the nuclear family will disappear in America.
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