“American Women Are Giving Up on Marriage” (WSJ):
The 29-year-old always thought she’d have found her life partner by now. Instead, she’s house hunting solo and considering having kids on her own.
“I’m financially self-sufficient enough to do these things myself,” said Vorlicek, a Boston-based accountant. “I’m willing to accept being single versus settling for someone who isn’t the right fit.”
American women have never been this resigned to staying single. They are responding to major demographic shifts, including huge and growing gender gaps in economic and educational attainment, political affiliation and beliefs about what a family should look like.
“The numbers aren’t netting out,” said Daniel Cox, director of the survey center at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank. He ticked off the data points: More women than men are attending college, buying houses and focusing on their friendships and careers over dating and marriage.
A 2022 Pew survey of single adults showed only 34% of single women were looking for romance, compared with 54% of single men, down from 38% and 61% in 2019. Men were also more likely than women to say they were worried that nobody would want to date them.
Coaching from mom:
Last year, Michele Kirsch told her three adult daughters she wanted them to have “boyfriends by Christmas.” She had a dream, she had told them, that each of them was standing in front of the lit-up tree next to “a hunk who liked to ski and went to a good school.”
“went to a good school” means “makes a well-above-median wage”?
Many of the men Katie [one of the adult daughters] met, she said, either seemed turned off by her ambition or weren’t career-oriented enough for her.
“weren’t career-oriented enough” means “makes a well-above-median wage”? Here’s an example female who is upset that she can’t find a man who out-earns her:
A similar anecdote:
Rachael Gosetti, a 33-year-old real-estate agent in Savannah, Ga., said she broke up with her boyfriend, with whom she shares a 5-year-old son, over a year ago because she was tired of doing most of the child care, cooking and scheduling while also earning almost double her boyfriend’s salary. She has yet to date anyone else in part because she worries about living in a red state with a six-week abortion ban. “I have a child that I can’t leave behind to drive to Virginia if I had a pregnancy scare, and I definitely can’t afford another child as a single mom,” she said.
The last part is curious. Virginia allows abortion care only up to 27 weeks of pregnancy, unlike in Maskachusetts, where it would be legal at 37 weeks if a single doc believes abortion care would help the patient’s mental health. If Ms. Gosetti didn’t learn about her pregnancy until the 36th week, for example, she could fly from Savannah to Boston, receive abortion care, and return home by air.
My thoughts on the above… first, it shows that accessing a high-income man’s income/wealth is much more practical via a casual sexual encounter (perhaps Clomid-assisted); see “Child Support Litigation without a Marriage” than by trying to persuade one of the male unicorns to commit to marriage. Second, the article is consistent with the idea that men have essentially no inherent value to the typical woman. The man who earns $500,000 per year and is pursued by various females would not be desirable if he lost the job and all of his savings.
The man who earns $500,000 per year and is pursued by various females would not be desirable if he lost the job and all of his savings. Yes!
proverbs 31:10-31 provides the ideal of woman. She seems a lot like contemporary woman’s ideal for men : a generous and industrious helpmate.
Is not the ideal man a free man, who depends not on unction to succeed?
My last unpaid, intimate encounters with women of any fitness ended over 15 years ago. Suspect the difference in men & women seeking romance is because of polyamory. There’s less stigma against paying for access to women than there was 30 years ago & porn is a lot easier to access for that many men to be seeking romance.
“The man who earns $500,000 per year and is pursued by various females would not be desirable if he lost the job and all of his savings.”
Reminds me of the old joke.
Rich old man to gold-digger girlfriend: “Honey, would you still love me if I lost all my money?”
Gold-digger: “Of course! And I’d miss you, too.”
This reminds me of the starting point of Billy Bob’s ex-marriage in Landman.
The social and cultural changes in Europe and the U.S. over the past half-century have been dramatic, particularly regarding marriage, long-term relationships, and natality. In many European countries, more than half of all births now occur out of wedlock. Women’s increased participation in the workforce and their rising social status have diminished the perceived value of low-income men for women seeking to marry up. (Surprisingly, it is easier than ever for men to find wealthier more educated women).
Education and income do not protect men from trouble…
https://nypost.com/2021/07/26/nyc-surgeon-beauty-queen-wife-settle-divorce-amid-hooker-allegations/
Lots of women seem have absorbed the prevalent misandry in our current dominant culture. Lots of women asking “what good are men”? (with the rich or good-looking ones having obvious temporary utility). If you ask them how it would sound if you gender-flipped the things they say, you are a suppressive person and deserve to be shut up.
If a man can identify as a women, then can a man identify as a $500k earner? Would liberal women accept him?
I’ve had two long-term committed relationships ending in unsuccessful engagements (age 22 and 28). And a few shorter-term relationships in the 30+ years since then. At about age 50, I realized the “juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”
Hollywood and social influencers play a significant role in today’s society. Add to that the rise of social media, with its short-form posts and videos, and you have the perfect recipe for weaker family structures and social dysfunction.
There was a time when women maintained order within the home-hold (i.e.: internal minister) while men upheld structure outside of it (external minister). Families gathered around the dinner table every very much every evening, sharing meals and discussing their lives and politics. Those days are largely gone.
Do you remember when political candidates used families discuss their hardship around dinner table to make their candidacy point? When was the last time you heard a candidate mention that?
This blog has become old men bitching and moaning about strong and independent women and how women destroyed family values and caused social /family dysfunction. This reminds me of Al Bundy and NO MA’AM (National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood). I love it.. keep it up.. cheers..!
Al had nothing to complain about, Peggy was hot.