In this week’s Wednesday Five: Single women are the most potent political force in America; Why fewer American women are married; Single women are big home buyers in Chicago; Why single women are quicker to jump into entrepreneurship; and Five questions single women would like to stop being asked.
1.
Single Women Are Now the Most Potent Political Force in America
The recent cover of New York Magazine declares:
“The most powerful voter this year, who in her rapidly increasing numbers has become an entirely new category of citizen, is The Single American Woman.” And why are single women becoming more and more powerful as a voting demographic?
The practicalities of female life independent of marriage give rise to demands for pay equity, paid family leave, a higher minimum wage, universal pre-K, lowered college costs, more affordable health care, and broadly accessible reproductive rights; many of these are issues that have, for years, been considered too risky to be central to mainstream Democratic conversation, yet they are policies today supported by both Democratic candidates for president.
Read more at New York Magazine.
RELATED: Book Review: ‘Sisters in Law’ — Two Women Who Have Made A Difference
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2.
Single By Choice: Why Fewer American Women Are Married Than Ever Before
In an interview with NPR’s Terry Gross, the author of the new book All the Single Ladies, Rebecca Traister unpacks the reasons for the declining marriage rates among adult women. And, she argues that those reasons are “less about the institution of marriage and more about the choices available to women today.”
“The choice not to marry isn’t necessarily a conscious rejection of marriage,” Traister tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “It is [about] the ability to live singly if an appealing marriage option doesn’t come along.”
Listen to the full interview above or at NPR.
