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All the Single Ladies

By: Rebecca Traister
Narrated by: Candace Thaxton, Rebecca Traister - introduction
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Publisher's Summary

In a provocative, groundbreaking work, National Magazine Award finalist Rebecca Traister, "the most brilliant voice on feminism in this country" (Anne Lamott), traces the history of unmarried women in America who, through social, political, and economic means, have radically shaped our nation.

For legions of women, living single isn't news; it's life. In 2009, the award-winning journalist Rebecca Traister started All the Single Ladies - a book she thought would be a work of contemporary journalism - about the 21st-century phenomenon of the American single woman. It was the year the proportion of American women who were married dropped below 50 percent, and the median age of first marriages, which had remained between 20 and 22 years old for nearly a century (1890-1980), had risen dramatically to 27.

But over the course of her vast research and more than 100 interviews with academics, 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 20 percent of Americans are wed by age 29, compared to nearly 60 percent in 1960. The Population Reference Bureau calls it a "dramatic reversal".

All the Single Ladies is a remarkable portrait of contemporary American life and how we got here, through the lens of the single American woman. Covering class, race, and sexual orientation and filled with vivid anecdotes from fascinating contemporary and historical figures, All the Single Ladies is destined to be a classic work of social history and journalism. Exhaustively researched, brilliantly balanced, and told with Traister's signature wit and insight, this book should be shelved alongside Gail Collins' When Everything Changed.

©2016 Rebecca Traister (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

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Deceptive title to a pointless book

This book purports to be about "unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation". What it actually seems to be about is that it is better to be single than in a bad relationship. Which I agree with, but it's like the author cannot see a relationship where the couple grows together, or does things separately if they don't want to do the same things. It also doesn't seem to be written in any order, lacks structure and relies heavily on anecdata and presenting the author's thoughts as if they are facts.
The book lacks structure, does not cover new ground and is very repetitious.
I found the narrator's voice quite soothing, but she does not clearly delineate chapter headings, which got a bit confusing.

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best non-fiction book I've read.m

loved this story of female emancipation. it's not the typical feminist read. well researched and not biased

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