Single women take an outsize role in the workforce — and the economy

This article is based on a report released this week and covers data through 2021.  Some of the data that surprised me includes:

• 52% of the women in 2021 were unmarried
•  7%. of the women in 1900 were unmarried
• never-married women earn 92% of what never-married men earn and have 29% of their wealth (see the graph below)
• 11 million single women own their homes compared to only 8 million single men
• by the age of 75, 14% of women are divorced, 39% are widowed, and 5% never married

The article repeatedly describes women as being more financially fragile.  The article ends with the story of a women who was earning $80,000 at a law firm and owned her own home.  After a couple of lay-offs and a car injury, she sells on eBay and comments that she is in the same financial place her mother had been.  She never would have believed this happening to her.  “… But it’s a reminder that we can be way up here, doing really well one minute and it just takes one thing, one occurrence, to destroy it all.”