Why 2017 Is Going To Be The Year Of The Single Woman

Single women have officially arrived. Granted, we’ve always been here, but finally, after years of getting the shaft from society simply because of our relationship status, we’re now getting the respect we deserve. People are noticing not just how much we’re a driving force behind everything, but they’re also recognizing the simple fact that when you let a woman make her own decisions, especially when those decisions are outside traditional gender norms, we’re all better for it. There’s actually a word for it: Progress. Interesting little word, isn’t it? We may only be one month into the New Year, but it’s safe to say that the evolution of the single woman is going to hit peak fruition in 2017.

1. There are more of us than ever before. Considering just how much single women are now the majority, we’re an army unto ourselves. We’re no longer a small group who just happened to either miss the marriage boat or didn’t get the memo that being a wife is the only way to happiness. Instead, we’ve opted out of this “traditional relationship status” thing and decided to do things a little different than our mothers and grandmothers. And, because there are so many of us, with numbers growing every day, we’ve given other single women the A-OK to do things their way without feeling like they’ve made the “wrong” choice.
2. We’re louder than ever. From a political standpoint, we single women have more to lose under the Trump administration. Assuming that most of us are sexually active, we need access to birth control, as well as our reproductive rights to stay intact. These things on Trump’s very long list of what he wants to take away from Americans aren’t just basic human rights, but essentials that we won’t be giving up without a fight. What you’ll find in 2017 — and we’ve already witnessed just the beginning of it with the women’s marches all over the globe the day after Trump’s inauguration – is that we’re going to be louder than ever. We’re not going to be ignored. We’re going to fight like hell.
3. We’ve embraced our singlehood with open arms. When I was 22 and single, I thought it was the end of the world. I was actually one of those women who read magazines with articles in them about “how to get a guy” because the idea of being single was too much to bear. But I no longer feel that way. In fact, I feel the exact opposite, and it’s not because I’m older and wiser. It’s because we, as single women, have embraced the fact that we’re single so wholeheartedly that we don’t have space in our consciousness to feel shame or inferiority because we’re single. Unlike past generations, single women are totally cool with being single because being it’s awesome.
4. Society has accepted us more than ever. Speaking of those aforementioned articles about “how to get a guy,” I can’t remember the last time I saw one. Granted, I’m not looking for them the way I once did, but even a quick visit to a handful of women’s websites reveals that they’re definitely not as common as they used to be. Society has finally caught up with single women and realized what we already knew: we don’t need a partner to be complete. Whereas not marrying was once seen as some radicalized aspect of feminism, it’s now just accepted as another option: one that’s not necessarily some “rebellious” anti-establishment act, but just another way to go about living one’s life.
5. We’ve become the deciders. Although the Electoral College messed up what could have been a huge win for women, stats from 2012 found that single women were a deciding factor when it came to voting. According to the Voter Participation Center, single women — across all races — were the ones who got out there to cast their vote more than their married counterparts. It was these single women who decided Obama would be our president. It’s also these single women you’ll see marching in the streets and standing up to Donald Trump’s archaic beliefs as to what and how a woman should be. We may have lost the election, but we won the popular vote, and that speaks volumes to our impact.
6. We’re the new “norm.” In case you haven’t noticed, single is the new married. We’ve basically put our foot down and loudly declared not just our presence, but our intent to not waver in our singlehood. It’s not just about the fact that we outnumber women who are un-single, but the reality of our ability to exist solely on our own, without being dependent on anyone else — most notably, men. This independence, on a level that hasn’t been seen before, makes us an entity unto ourselves; the new “norm,” if you will.
7. We’ve made history. Do you realize the historical significance that is us, as in you, me, and every other single woman out there?! In 2017, we’re going to flourish even more than we did in 2016, 2015, 2014, and every year before that. We’re going to take all this rethinking and reimagining what it means to be a single woman and implement it into our daily lives more than ever. We’re going to continue to shake things up, makes ourselves visible, and in what few corners of society where being a single woman is a “bad” thing, we’re going to serve them a plate of reality they can’t escape. Everywhere we go, we’ll leave a trail of proof that single women aren’t just dominating, but are part of the very infrastructure of our society which compels people to pay attention and realize our worth. And in the process, we won’t just make history, but each and every one of us will be part of history — or should I say herstory?