I think it’s excellent that women are able to do the things they are in this day and age, I can’t even BEGIN to imagine what it must have been like not to be able to study, to get an education, to have a career and simply to be able to choose. Whether that choice is marriage or “singledom” forever, it’s still a choice we get these days.

Girl power!

Throughout my 20′s I assumed I would have marriage and kids- later. What I’ve learned the hard way is you can’t control when things happen. If you consciously “delay” one of your life’s goals, you risk that you will never attain that goal.

I am happy to hear that being single is becoming more acceptable. And I’m all in favor of those that don’t want marriage, or don’t want kids. Any choice that is right for you is the right choice. However, for those that do want marriage and family to be a part of their life- I feel it’s very risky to think you can control when you can have it and under what terms.

It would not only be much more tedious, but the feelings of particular groups within the “single” category probably wouldn’t differ that much from the whole. (I think that’s my sociology/statistics background coming back to haunt me.)

Good point, though, about them referring to it as marriage “and family.” You’re right — the definition of “family” is no longer what it once was. “Marriage and kids” would have been a better term.

another thing i don’t get about this one: the false dichotomy it sets up between being “home-loving” and a “clubber.” that is just silly, it’s not like it is an all or nothing distinction. a lot of people are very much nesters and have well rounded lives in which one part of their social life happens to be going out to bars and clubs regularly. of course there are few adults past the age of 22 who are going out clubbing to the exclusion of all other interests in their lives. as we used to say back in my day: “no duh.” survey questions like these don’t really do anything but provide pithy sound bites. they don’t have any actual useful information.

and since i’m obviously grumpy with these surveys today anyway, what’s up with the supposition that unmarried women are delaying marriage “and family”? they could just as easily say that the women are delaying marriage and kids. hello — i’m not married, and i don’t have kids, but i definitely have a family!! what the fuck.

But I think there are moderations to be made. In Europe there are 30% of 1-person households, in the Northern countries like Sweden, it is 40% already and sociologists say that this rate will be generalised in all Europe by 2010.
We live in a society where, althoug we use a lot of media and communicate in many different ways, people find it hard to meet someone and find their significant other. I wonder how many single women in this study were 100%single-by-choice.
As a 29 yo single, I recognize myself a lot in this study but that doesn’t mean I have chosen to be single so “late” in my life.

And PS :-) the flat sharing has never been my thing either! Thank God I live in a place where singles can afford their own place without much difficulty.