What Do Single Women Want? By Millicent Carter, Global One Contributor
What do single women really want? Suppose you were to recruit hundreds of them, across the United States, and ask them to name the number-one priority in their life. What do you think they would say? One more thing, before you answer. Set aside single women in their 20s. Youthful 20-something brides are a thing of the past. In more than a century of keeping tabs on the age at which women first get married (of those who do marry), the Census Bureau has found that first-time brides have never been older than they are now — on average, 27.4. Men are even older, on the cusp of turning 30 (29.5 to be exact). Getting married, then, is unlikely to be at the top of the list of life priorities for 20-something single women. But what about women between the ages of 30 and 45? Women who have always been single and have no kids. What do you think their numberone priority is? That was the question — among many others - posed by the marketing research company, Hill Holiday’s Origin, together with Match Media Group. More than 1,200 people were surveyed, including lifelong single men with no children and married women, in addition to the single women. Priorities of Single Women The number-one priority of single women was living on their own. Nearly half (44 percent) said that’s what mattered most to them. Named next most often as their number-one priority was establishing a career. About one-third of single women (34 percent) prioritized their career over everything else. The third most popular number-one priority of single women was financial security. More than a quarter of the women (27 percent) said that financial security mattered most. Hey, wait — where’s marriage? Aren’t single women supposed to be obsessed with getting married? That’s what advertisements, movies, and TV shows proclaim. Romantic plots are dropped mindlessly into scripts, as if the greatest talents of Hollywood are stumped when it comes to imagining any other life for a single woman. This year’s season-ending episode of Grey’s Anatomy, from the much-lauded Shondaland juggernaut, was seeded with not one, not two, but three weddings. In fact, the research I am describing was motivated in large part by a concern that popular
PHOTO BY ANDREA PIACQUADIO
culture was missing the mark when it comes to single women. The single women who were surveyed agreed: 56 percent said they were not fairly represented on TV or in movies, and 44 percent said they were not fairly represented in advertisements. In the survey, only 20 percent of the single women said that getting married was their numberone priority. That puts it in fourth place, after living on their own, establishing a career, and financial security. What about having kids? Only 8 percent of the single women described that goal as their numberone priority. More of them (12 percent) said that getting promoted at work was their most important priority. Our cultural conversations are filled with angst about the “baby, maybe” question. The researchers approached the matter of priorities a second way, asking participants, “Ten years from now, what are your personal PHOTO BY ANDREA PIACQUADIO priorities?” Again, marriage was not on the top of the list. The single women consistently rated traveling as more important.
GLOBALONEMAG.COM - 40 - WINTER 2021
