Women Who Are Embracing Independence

Why are increasing numbers of women choosing to remain solo?

• In the past, women who stayed single into their adult years have been derided as faulty, undesirable or tragic since time immemorial.
• There are derogatory terms for such women in many languages, from the English “spinster” to the Chinese “Sheng-nu”, which translates as “leftover women”.
• The number of singletons in populations is growing steadily, making up nearly 50% of the US population for instance.
• Planned single motherhood is another phenomenon that grows every year, with rising numbers of women opting to try and conceive on their own with the help of IVF and other fertility treatments.
• While growing numbers of long-term male singletons are attributed with the birth of the toxic, misogynist incel culture, discussions about female singledom by choice have an overall positive flair.
• Parts of the right-wing press also ridicule the phenomenon as the epitome of self-destructive feminism, many women see it as the next stage in the struggle for lasting emancipation.