Refusing to settle

Kate Bolick examines the redefined role of the single woman:

My mother explained that not all grown-ups get married. “Then who opens the pickle jar?” (I was 5.) Thus began my lifelong fascination with the idea of the single woman. There was my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Connors, who was, I believe, a former nun, or seemed like one. There was the director of my middle-school gifted-and-talented program, who struck me as wonderfully remote and original. (Was she a lesbian?) There was a college poetry professor, a brilliant single woman in her 40s who had never been married, rather glamorously, I thought. Once, I told her I wanted to be just like her. “Good God,” she said. “I’ve made a mess of my life. Don’t look to me.” Why did they all seem so mysterious, even marginalized?

It's an excellent article, and if you're used to skimming the quotes on this site, you really ought to spend the time reading the whole thing. The Hairpin has an interview with the author.