Many women are seeing that marriage doesn't benefit us in the ways that it benefits men. There's a study that shows women are happier single, and men are happier married. Most marriages are inequitable with women carrying more of the burden of the household, children, and plans. When I hear that someone hasn't married and is older, I just assume they've avoided their first divorce. Many people have no interest in marrying at all, and I love that women have that option now when in the past, they would have been financially dependent on marriage for survival.

I do know single women who aren't happy with being single, but I know even more who are truly content and at peace with it. We have full, busy, meaningful lives. It seems much healthier to me to be single and enjoying life than to be married and miserable. I've been married, and I much prefer being single. If my generation hadn't been raised with such emphasis on marriage as a relationship step, I might have avoided the divorce altogether by never marrying or staying in a relationship that wasn't right for me.

I can only speak for my own experience, but I think most of us are tossing aside societal ideas of what we should and shouldn't do, particularly as we age. The unmarried might not be experiencing shame because they realize it's not shameful to choose themselves rather than settling for an unhappy legal relationship designation. Those are simply my thoughts on it from my experience and what I'm seeing with friends.