Puts me in mind of the movie "Its a Wonderful Life" when Clarence tells George of the horror that Mary has become "an old maid." We then see Donna Reed in librarian getup being scared of every man she meets.
Well, the reason Mary is in the libraarian get up is because she was a pot with only one potential lid--George. And she's not afraid of the average man because she's a spinster, she's scared because Potterville is riddled with poverty and crime.
I'm sure Capra wouldn't have had a spinster character scared of her own shadow on the streets of Bedford Falls.