The following book authors, educators, and other experts -- all of whom are members of the American Association for Single People -- have authorized AASP to publish their comments on "America's Families and Living Arrangements: March 2000," a report just released by the Census Bureau. 

For information on how to reach these experts for further comments, please contact Stephanie Knapik, AASP's Director of Public Affairs, at: (818) 242-5124 or you mail send her an e-mail message to knapik@unmarriedAmerica.com

     E. Kay Trimberger, Ph.D.
     Berkeley, California

     Emeritus Professor of Women's and Gender Studies
     Sonoma State University

In the on-going public debate about the decline of marriage, little recognition has been given to the fact that only a tiny percentage of Americans never marry. According to 1998 census figures only 7% of women and 9% of men 45 - 54 years of age have never married These people are the heart of the baby boom generation born between 1944 and 1953 (if you use 2000 census figures this will be 1946 - 1955) We have to recognize that these figures include some people who will still marry at a late age, and many lesbian and gay couples who would like to marry, but are legally prohibited from doing so.

In the future we can expect the number of ever single Americans to increase as single life is less stigmatized and is more accepted as a valid alternative to marriage. Such a development will help decrease the divorce rate as people marry more for positive reasons and not because of family and public pressure to marry and/or a fear of remaining single. As a small step towards this more balanced view of married and single life, we can ask the census bureau to change their category to "ever-single" recognizing as we do so, that this term is still inadequate since most "single" adults have strong family, friendship and community bonds



Professor Trimberger has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago and has taught at Sonoma State University since 1975.  Her current research is on the changing lives of single women in the United States.

       Victoria Jaycox
       Washington, DC

       author of "Single Again: A Guide for Women Starting Over"

Although marriage certainly hasn't gone out of style among older women, most women over the age of 65 (some 55%) are unmarried. According to the 2000 Census, nearly 10.5 million older women are single, almost two million more than were unmarried in 1980.

Yet despite their growing numbers, our society continues to behave as though the norm is for older women to be married. In the media and advertisements, older single women are either invisible, or when they do receive notice, their images are brimming with myths and negative stereotypes. Think for a moment of the older women you see portrayed on television sit-coms. Most of them will be married. But when you do see an older women who is unmarried, she is usually portrayed as silly, or stupid, or unfit in some other way.

It's amazing, then, given these negative attitudes, that older women on their own continue to forge ahead to build exciting lives. They are living independently, keeping active intellectually and socially, with close ties to family and friends.

The time has come for our attitudes and images to catch up with reality. The daughters and granddaughters of today's older women will, more than likely, spend some part of their own lives as single adults. And today's older single women are, in countless ways, showing these younger women how they too can live happy, fulfilled lives on their own.


Victoria Jaycox has been an activist for over two decades on behalf of women's issues such as the status of older women, health care and pensions.  She served as executive director of the national Older Women's League, speaking out, writing, and testifying before Congress on behalf of the group's members.  She now writes full time.