Womennolonger need to be married
20th century, the “iron triangle” linking marriage, sex and childbearing was shattered.
All the Single Ladies is essentially a celebration of American women’s financial, sexual and reproductive independence. It provides a social history of unmarried women in the US including their enormous impact on social change. It documents the wide variety of ways in which these women now freely plan and live their lives.
Interestingly, Traister could equally well have made her case in the UK. British women have fewer tax incentives to marry than their American counterparts and also benefit from mandatory paid sick leave and parental leave. The impact of these longstanding social policies is unequivocal. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the median age for a woman’s first marriage in this country is 29, up from 23 in 1986 and 22 in 1956. Half of all women aged 18-49 have never married.
We talk at some length about the institution of marriage. While the benefits of marriage for men are well known, Traister’s research adds to the weight of evidence that it has the opposite impact on women.
Marriage often damages a woman’s promotional prospects and earnings, since both women and their employers are conditioned to anticipate family needs that will require them to take breaks from employment. For many of the lower-income women California when a friend told him to watch the 1937 Marx Brothers comedy, A Day at the Races, on television.
“Seeing that movie sparked all this interest and wanting to be part of this world. It looked like a lot of fun. There was something very sly about Groucho that appealed to me. Also I was taught by nuns so experienced a very oppressive environment. Groucho was able to crack through all the time and, whatever the situation, end up on top. That’s very exhilarat- Chutzpah: Frank as Groucho Traister speaks to, a husband is seen as an economically unstable partner who may be an encumbrance rather than a source of support. In addition, ease of separation and divorce means that marriage nowadays is a very weak bond. Pamela, one of Traister’s interviewees and a single mother, makes this clear. “Marriage won’t keep a man around. If I did get married and he wanted to leave, he would leave.” Despite this, Traister’s view is a positive one: because women have higher expectations, and because they’re holding out for better partners, “that’s how we’re improving, and thereby saving, ing when you are a child,” says Ferrante, now 52. He became fascinated by the third of the Marx brothers and when, at the age of 86, Groucho was scheduled to appear at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, 13-yearold Ferrante persuaded his father to take him along. In an act of sheer chutzpah, Frank tagged on to Groucho’s entourage as they entered the building. “I didn’t care, nothing was going to stop me, I could even smell his cologne, it was like an old spicy smell, I was that close,” he says.