A review by kstep1805
All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister

hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

This book was an excellent historical and somewhat biographical look at single women in the US. The most interesting part of the book is that the most progressive countries, like the Scandinavian countries, have a stable marriage rate and lower divorce rates than more conservative counterparts. She also pointed out that delaying marriage leads to better marriage outcomes and those choosing marriage most often are women who are successful, dispelling worries that financially successful women are opting out. Even sex before marriage is dropping off, and young people today have fewer sexual partners than their Boomer parents or grandparents. So most of the hand wringing may be misplaced. It’s time to accept that if we want to put families first, we need to support progressive policies. She lays out the alternative, what we are already seeing, plunging marriage and birth rates as seen in Korea, Japan, and Italy. This book predominantly focused on those who haven’t married yet, some divorcees, and single mothers and childless women. It really didn’t focus on women in my position, I’d like to explore how widowhood affects women more. What their lives look like post spousal death. Statistics already show that widows tend not to remarry while widowers tend to remarry.