Most women are now living without a spouse

NYT: 51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse
In response to this article, Forum (KQED) had a panel discuss this trend. They said that most people do want to be in a LTR, but that they are less willing to settle than before. People want a relationship for a real partnership, to be witness of another person’s life.... But that relationships also require a lot of flexibility, and most people seek one where they are encouraged to be their best self.

"I like loving. I like mostly all the ways one can have of having loving feelings in them. Slowly it has come to be in me that any way of being a loving one is interesting and not unpleasant to me."-Gertrude Stein (Ilana has this on her wall.)

Interestingly, two men called in with concerns. One worried about this trend reflecting increasing selfishness in our society. The other said that as a result of this trend, men feel left, abandoned, that this is emotional devastating for men. Change is upsetting. The other thing people observed is that the role of work in our society, the way it is supposed to take up so much of our time in order for us to succeed, forces a choice. And many people are choosing friends over an exclusive partnership to go with the work they signed up for (of course, you can only have 2, never all 3).