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 ...
This will be picked up and rebroadcast by all the media. Problem is that it is a contrived number. They had to include 15 year olds to get the number where they want it. (Few 15 year olds are married.) Also, it includes widows (most women over 75 or so are widowed)
So..it must have been about 70% living without a spouse in WWII? So what actually is the trend?
You'd have died early, too, if your wife kept you locked in the closet all those years.
>And spousal and child support payments.<
By the grace of God, I raised three without either during the sixties and early seventies. No handouts, no gubmint programs, just faith, grit and hard work after 13 years of a bad marriage. It can be done.
I never dated til 25 either, but not by choice. I repeatedly asked and was rejected. At the time I owned 6 apartment buildings and lived in them. I knew the intimate details of the lives of all of my tenants. 50% were unattached women. 30% were unattached men. 20% were married (ceremony or common law).
After continued rejections age 25 to 30, I began an intensive examination of the subject, talking with large numbers of people, including literally hundreds of current and former tenants who had talked with me in the past about their intimate decisions.
I formed my opinions then and have found them to be generally consistent with subsequent observations. Of course, there are exceptions.
LOL!! As the ex-FedEx guy, let me give you single guys a clue. Drop your "career". Go work for UPS or FedEx as a driver and you will meet lots of women! I was seriously married before I went to work for FedEx, so I didn't get the "results", but the opportunities? My, my my,.....hundreds........thousands.
I didn't know that was the cause of brain lymphoma. Thank you for your medical expertise.
Carolyn
"It seems like people of both sexes are getting more and more selfish, bitter, lazy, hard headed and hence, more lonely. "
agreed.
"These threads should be misanthropic rather than misogynist."
The hatred expressed towards women by freepers on thread after thread is downright frightening.
"I fear for my children. I want them all to have good marriages, growing families - getting better all the time, like I have. "
I've been blessed with that too and would like to see the same for my kids.
Self sacrifice is the key - and that just isn't something that is taught as a value today.
"Hopefully their spouses will be freepers"
Some freepers are very scary.
Shyness does not equal weakness.
Then what is a shy man afraid of? Social censure?
That's probably greatest weakness a man could possibly demonstrate - especially toward women.
Oh please.
I know plenty of "shy" men who are plenty manly. They just get all tied in knots when it comes to women. Sometimes because they're used to being rejected, others just because they have a poor self-image - often about looks, which is often engendered by all their peers when they grew up.
Dad, my husband....many of my cousins. Some of my husband's friends. These men are shy guys but not "wimps".
Give me a break. Apparently you all can't make the distinction.
Believe it or not, I would recomend bars over church for meeting women. Call me old school.
Oh, you mean they bought into the Disney/Church/MSM/Feminist/Socialist meme that women are Higher Beings who must always be obeyed and never spoken to by men unless addressed first? That kind of non-wimpiness? (LOL!) That's a pretty big "just"...
There are a fair number of women who misguidedly love having most men act "shy" of them, since it allows them to maintain the illusion that they can assert control over their relationships. They always end up paying for that in some way.
Not to be crude, but as the old saying goes "Why buy the cow when they're giving the milk away for free."
This is an unfortunate turn of events for our culture.
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