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Title details for All the Single Ladies by Rebecca Traister - Available

All the Single Ladies

Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation

by Rebecca Traister
Candace Thaxton
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
* NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2016 SELECTION * BEST BOOKS OF 2016 SELECTION BY THE BOSTON GLOBE * ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY * NPR * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY *

The New York Times bestselling investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women is "an informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just the single ladies—who want to gain a greater understanding of this pivotal moment in the history of the United States" (The New York Times Book Review).
In 2009, award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies about the twenty-first century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below fifty percent; and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between twenty and twenty-two years old for nearly a century (1890–1980), had risen dramatically to twenty-seven.

But over the course of her vast research and more than a hundred interviews with academics and social scientists and prominent single women, Traister discovered a startling truth: the phenomenon of the single woman in America is not a new one. And historically, when women were given options beyond early heterosexual marriage, the results were massive social change—temperance, abolition, secondary education, and more. Today, only twenty percent of Americans are married by age twenty-nine, compared to nearly sixty percent in 1960.

"An informative and thought-provoking book for anyone—not just single ladies" (The New York Times Book Review), All the Single Ladies is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the unmarried American woman. Covering class, race, sexual orientation, and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures, "we're better off reading Rebecca Traister on women, politics, and America than pretty much anyone else" (The Boston Globe).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 1, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781508215073
      • File size: 335958 KB
      • Duration: 11:39:54

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In 2009, the percentage of American women who were not married surpassed 50 percent. Traister's important book examines that phenomenon. Narrator Candace Thaxton handles both the exposition and the interviews with passion, drawing on the indignation of some of the interviewees who defend their decision to delay or forgo marriage, often in defiance of family and friends. Thaxton gives a nuanced presentation yet speaks with conviction about a culture that struggles to adjust to self-reliant women who throw off expectations that the ultimate goal of their lives is a wedding, marriage, and children. Maintaining the tone of an observer who has empathy for her subjects, Thaxton is engaged with their struggles and takes pleasure in their successes. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 18, 2016
      Incorporating a lively slew of perspectives of single ladies past and present, Traister (Big Girls Don’t Cry) conducts a nuanced investigation into the sexual, economic, and emotional lives of women in America and the opportunities available when marriage is no longer “the measure of female existence.” She takes into account the realities of loneliness, poverty, delayed reproduction, and childlessness that make singlehood difficult for some, as she fills out the picture with subjects across the spectrum of color and class, dismantling the persistent myths about female desire and ambition with earnest energy and facts. Traister is funny and fair in how she deals with the prevalent stereotypes and remaining stigmas attached to being an unmarried woman in society. She sticks to her central argument that the world is changing and policies need to catch up to the social reality. The result is an invigorating study of single women in America with refreshing insight into the real life of the so-called spinster. Agent: Linda Loewenthal, the Loewenthal Company.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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