For a very long time marriage was considered a foundation of
American life. Adulthood and marriage came hand in hand, and
shortly after marriage children were the next logical step.
Breaking that mold wasn’t a socially acceptable or financially
viable option for women. Today, however, marriage rates show us a
very different picture of what is considered the norm. To lend some
insight into these changing conventions, Point of
Inquiry welcomes Rebecca Traister, an author and
award-winning journalist who is the writer-at-large for
New York Magazine and a
contributing editor at Elle. Her new
book is All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the
Rise of an Independent Nation.

 
In 1960, the majority of American women were married by age 29.
Today only 20 percent of American women are married by then. For
over a century the median age of first marriages for women in
America had remained between 20 and 22, but in recent years it has
jumped dramatically to age 27.  Overall, fewer American women
are married than ever before and Traister has investigated what’s
behind this dramatic change, and what it means for a new generation
of single women in America.