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Publication #FAR3038

 

Old Maid No More1

Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
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Twenty years ago, women were being warned that, according to demographic research, if they didn't marry by the time they were in their early twenties, they would likely live out their lives unwed. As a child, I was even told that "those" women became "old maids," and I feared a similar fate. Fast-forward to 2006, and the news is quite different.

In a recent analysis of the 1986 report made famous in Newsweek magazine, renowned family historian Stephanie Coontz summarized how inaccurate those predictions turned out to be. According to Coontz, the good news for women (and the men who marry them) is that the average age of first marriage for women today is almost 26. For women with a college degree, it's 27 (Coontz, 2006). And even when women reach their middle years, they still marry: "More women now marry for the first time in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s than ever before in history" (Coontz, 2006, ¶ 6).

Another significant change in women's marriage trends is that for hundreds of years women who remained single to pursue higher education or a professional career were less likely to marry. For women born since 1960, this is no longer true. The women of this generation with advanced degrees are actually more likely to marry than women with low levels of education. Coontz explains that this change has come about as men are much more likely to marry women who are their intellectual and economic peers (Coontz, 2006).

Perhaps these new trends reflect that "For better or for worse" no longer includes the qualification of "…only if you're young"! 

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/450.mp3

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Reference

Coontz, S. (2006, June 5). Three "rules" that don't apply [Electronic version]. Newsweek. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13006808/site/newsweek [delinked 5 September 2012].

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR3038, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 450. Published January 2007. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.