With Choice Comes Revolutionary Change
As women have experienced an ‘expansion of options’ in terms of marriage and family, there are a growing number of single ladies. As of 2009, less than 50% of American women were married, and the median age for a first marriage had risen from 22 to 27. Also, women are increasingly opting to have children outside of marriage.
What are the implications of this revolution?
In Episode 41, Toi Smith spoke about her challenges in developing a support system as the single mother of four boys. Today, I’m exploring the ideas in Rebecca Traister’s book, All the Single Ladies, and the opportunities for entrepreneurs to serve parents and single mothers by addressing their unmet needs.
I discuss CoAbode, a platform founded on the idea that ‘two single mothers raising children together can achieve more than one going it alone,’ and the role of single women in history. Listen in and learn how growing choice has caused the seismic shift in what family looks like in our country and the opportunity this provides for entrepreneurs inspired to help build for the future.
The Startup Pregnant Podcast Episode #042
Some quotes from the episode
- “I realize that this … single parent family is so burdensome and so challenging because all of the energy is directed at one single individual.”
- “All of a sudden, we have a country’s population where half of the women are not getting married and when people are getting married, they’re getting married much, much later.”
- “This decision to get married or not to get married is a relatively new phenomenon, and it’s the result of women having choice in the matter at all.”
- “We’re now at a time when the majority of women are choosing not to get married, and then the rate and rise of women who are choosing to have children outside of marriage or to become single parents is also rising dramatically.”
- “Single women have, throughout history, been some of the biggest and most successful writers, activists and thinkers … but also, historically, they’ve been ridiculed and silenced.”
- “For parents, for single parents, for people who are forging a new path of what family and what community looks like, there are hundreds of thousands of unmet needs. And what that means as an entrepreneur is that there are so many opportunities to serve this market.”
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
- CoAbode
- All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister