"More than half of American women are single... and many women are swearing off marriage"

When Sex and the City premiered in 1998, it captured public attention for reasons that extended beyond its provocative title. The show wasn't just about women having a lot of sex—it was about women over 30 doing so while being unapologetically single. A Los Angeles Times critic called them a "mid-30ish crowd of bed-hopping, hedonistic female night crawlers." Their independence painted a picture of a bold, even disruptive, new kind of woman.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, American women pioneered a new model of adulthood—one not defined by marriage but by lives lived independently outside matrimony. Journalist Rebecca Traister highlighted this cultural shift in her 2016 book, All the Single Ladies. Today, unmarried women are no longer a cultural outlier—they’re the mainstream. As of 2021, 52% of American women were either unmarried or separated, a record high according to Wells Fargo Economics. Census data from 2019 also revealed there were 100 unmarried women for every 90 unmarried men in the U.S.

While some women report being dissatisfied with the dating pool or disillusioned by the app-driven dating scene, a growing number—dubbed "Samantha Nation" by some—embrace their single status. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found only 38% of single women were actively seeking a relationship, compared to 61% of single men.

This growing acceptance of singlehood among women has reshaped societal expectations of adulthood. However, it has sparked backlash from those who see it as a challenge to traditional family values. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance drew criticism for past comments about “childless cat ladies” and doubled down on claims that single women represent a rejection of pro-family ideals. Critics like Vance argue that the trend erodes the nuclear family, but research suggests the root cause is economic rather than cultural.

As men exit the workforce in increasing numbers, women have hit new milestones. In August 2023, the share of prime-age women (ages 25 to 54) in the labor force reached a record 78.4%. Meanwhile, the median age for a woman’s first marriage climbed from 20.8 in 1970 to 28.3 in 2023. These economic shifts are driving women to prioritize careers and financial independence, fundamentally altering traditional timelines for marriage and family.

A Shifting Workforce

The nostalgia for the mid-20th-century nuclear family overlooks its status as a historical anomaly. The male-breadwinner, single-income household surged briefly after World War I and II but quickly receded. By 1970, 40% of married women and over half of unmarried women were employed outside the home, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even earlier, American women had long participated in the labor force, a trend accelerated by deindustrialization in the 1980s and 1990s, which displaced many men from stable, high-paying jobs.

Economist Claudia Goldin, a 2023 Nobel laureate, has shown that the gender gap in workforce participation steadily narrowed from 1890 to 1990. However, as men’s participation rates declined, women’s workforce gains did not translate to equal earning power. On average, women still earn $0.84 for every $1 earned by men. Despite this, women have surpassed men in educational attainment; in 2019, women outnumbered men in the college-educated labor force for the first time.

The Marriage Gap

These shifts are influencing women’s relationship decisions. A 2023 survey by the American Enterprise Institute's Survey Center on American Life found that nearly three-quarters of single, college-educated women cited an inability to find partners who met their expectations as a reason for being unattached. Among women without college degrees, only 54% expressed the same sentiment.

The traditional economic model of marriage, popularized by economist Gary Becker in the 1980s, posited that men and women partnered based on complementary roles: men as breadwinners, women as caregivers. But with declining male workforce participation and rising female economic independence, this model is increasingly outdated.

Independence vs. Inequality

“We’re seeing men’s labor-force participation rates really plummet, especially since the 1990s,” said Elizabeth Crofoot, senior economist at Lightcast. “This gives women more reason to focus on their careers and achieve financial stability on their own.”

Still, women’s progress in the labor market hasn’t resolved systemic inequalities. The growing number of single women underscores a cultural and economic evolution that challenges traditional norms, reshaping the way Americans think about adulthood, relationships, and independence.