Posted on 01/16/2007 10:04:04 AM PST by shrinkermd
For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.
In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.
Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.
Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom.
In addition, marriage rates among black women remain low. Only about 30 percent of black women are living with a spouse, according to the Census Bureau, compared with about 49 percent of Hispanic women, 55 percent of non-Hispanic white women and more than 60 percent of Asian women.
In a relatively small number of cases, the living arrangement is temporary, because the husbands are working out of town, are in the military or are institutionalized. But while most women eventually marry, the larger trend is unmistakable.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
"Well encapsulates" for you, perhaps, but you just lost me.
You seem to've been meeting the WRONG kind of lady, which is to say, not a lady at all. Or are YOU the one keeping a scorecard that goes "this act of politeness should result in such-and-such sacrifice" on her part?
Women generally want a man who makes significantly more money than them, is at least as well educated, and generally contributes to their "status" with their friends.
It's hard for a woman on the right half of the Bell Curve to accomplish that. Meanwhile, men who are equal to them in income, or are balding or overweight, are not interesting to them
No no no no no. "Keeping score" is what 'players', womanizers, and the otherwise weak-esteemed do. I was just making a meta-reference to where that fine line is between the MetroMan and the CaveMan.
Most women realize that they can have both excitement and stability. Marriage is hard enough with someone who revs your motor. Starting out with someone who bores you is dooming yourself to failure.
If I ever did that, it was to save you embarassment. I take conversations private when they should not be aired on the FR public thread. I try to be considerate.
The thing that kills me about these threads are the constant insinuations that anyone who is "fun" is by extension irresponsible and no good. Not only are boring people held up as virtuous, but people who aren't boring are actually looked down upon.
I AM the social type, and always was. Perhaps it's why I'm a good salesman. However, just because I was at ease in party situtations and presented myself well, didn't mean I was irresponsible.
I think you are right.Divorce court is the only place I know where you can lose more that half of what you own (and often even your offspring) all with absolutley no proof of having done something wrong.
Even the IRS can't take your kids.
And they're still not happy!
Well said. My favorite example is the "shy" guy. Call him what he is, a wimp. Of course no woman in her right mind is going to be turned on by a guy who's too timid to cross the room and chat her up. What possible reason could she have to find that attractive?
Ah, OK. I was afraid I'd hit a nerve there.
Look, if any person male or female hasn't the heart to accept graciousness on the part of another, you're better off learning that before further entanglement. Words of the terminally single here, so YMMV. :o)
My only excuse is that I didn't settle for the ones who were willing to settle for me, LOL! There are worse things than being single.
I know what you mean. A man can not truly be gentle if he doesn't have the capacity to be more coarse. Gentleness in a man can be admired by women (and often is), but usually when it is part of that range, and not if his range is limited to 'gentle----less gentle.' :-)
The data about this claim are spurious, anyway - some sociological New York Slimes J-schooler with an agenda used selective census data to claim that marriage is now somehow abnormal. Michael Medved today exposed his methodology: he included every female in the USA FIFTEEN YEARS old and up.
Really sinister, crap journalism.
It's mostly about just having the balls to be yourself and speak your mind. Guys who follow their own interests and speak their own minds are masucline. Guys who're afraid to stand out or express themselves aren't masculine. Timidity and extreme self-consciousness aren't masculine traits. Couple that with the couch potato'dness of said man, why would a woman bother? Of course women want involved, active, bold men. Why wouldn't they? Who wants the introverted spectator content to watch fictitious people live life on TV?
You put that well. If the extreme is missing on one end, it's likely missing on the other, too.
(This one ought to set off the FR Wuss Brigade...)
Best formulation I've heard recently: "A shy man is an untrustworthy man."
Meaning, since he doesn't even believe in himself, how is he going to defend her from the sabertooth tiger?
It's this instinctive, negative reaction that's at the heart of why women avoid "nice guys".
You may or may not be in the minority, but that's not really the issue. You at least seem to recognize that other's may disagree with you. I love tattoos on women, always have. I find little sexier.
At 80, the tattooed and the non-tattooes will all be too consumed at how droopy their skin is, tattoos or not. It's not like people without tattoos look any better at 80. Old and wrinkled is old and wrinkled.
I won't argue that point. Coming across the age of 15, I was scratching my head. I wonder by how much that bumped up the number of single mothers, nevermind "single women."
The one blowing the bubble...yowza!!!
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