Description
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 marriage, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890–1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.
Over the course of her research and more than a hundred interviews with academics, social scientists, and prominent single women, Traister discovered that the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. 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.
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 contemporary and historical figures, the book traces the political and personal consequences of changing attitudes toward marriage and autonomy.
Endorsements
New York Times Notable Books of 2016 selection.
Best Books of 2016 selection — The Boston Globe.
Entertainment Weekly selection.
NPR selection.
Chicago Public Library selection.
The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women.
“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.
“We're better off reading Rebecca Traister on women, politics, and America than pretty much anyone else” — The Boston Globe.
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