From the San Francisco Chronicle:

51% of women live without spouse
Shift reflects trend toward later marriage, staying divorced longer or never wedding

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Coupled with the fact that in 2005, married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape a range of social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits.

Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods of time. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom.

Well then, I think it’s a good thing. What do we really need them for anyways? LOL! The story goes on to talk about the amount of people living with boyfriends and stuff, but there is much more to it than that. Marriage and living together seems to ge tougher and tougher as society creates more ways to communicate faster I think people see so many options today that people never had in the fifties. Could it be that the new temporary expiring marriage that is getting press in the middle east may be a sign of the future times? Could it be that it’s time for new laws and religous instutions to find more ways of making a marriage a happier place rather than all of these “work for your marriage: seminars we hear about?

It’s an interesting time to live in.. I wonder why the article did not delve more into what it’s like for all those unmarried men to take care of themselves these days. Who would have thought men couldmake it on their own as much as they today? LOL!