All the Single Ladies

Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation

Rebecca Traister

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781476716572
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501161520
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

* NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2016 SELECTION * BEST BOOKS OF 2016 SELECTION BY THE BOSTON GLOBE * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * NPR * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women is "an informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just the single ladies—who want to gain a greater understanding of this pivotal moment in the history of the United States" ( The New York Times Book Review ). In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890–1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change—temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960. "An informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just single ladies" ( The New York Times Book Review ), All the Single Ladies is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the unmarried American woman. Covering class, race, sexual orientation, and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures, "we're better off reading Rebecca Traister on women, politics, and America than pretty much anyone else" ( The Boston Globe ).

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• A Note on Interviews and Attribution
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Watch Out for That Woman: The Political and Social Power of an Unmarried Nation
• Chapter Two: Single Women Have Often Made History: Unmarried in America
• Chapter Three: The Sex of the Cities: Urban Life and Female Independence
• Chapter Four: Dangerous as Lucifer Matches: The Friendships of Women
• Chapter Five: My Solitude, My Self: Single Women on Their Own
• Chapter Six: For Richer: Work, Money, and Independence
• Chapter Seven: For Poorer: Single Women and Sexism, Racism, and Poverty
• Chapter Eight: Sex and the Single Girls: Virginity to Promiscuity and Beyond
• Chapter Nine: Horse and Carriage: Marrying—And Not Marrying—In the Time of Singlehood
• Chapter Ten: Then Comes What? And When? Independence and Parenthood
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Where Are They Now?
• Acknowledgments
• About Rebecca Traister
• Selected Bibliography
• Notes
• Copyright