There have always been women living apart from family life, at least during the historic period. For obvious reasons, men have almost universally considered female celibacy a matter of reproach, and they have even invented such makeshifts as child marriage in India and sealing among the Mormons that unfortunate or undesirable women might be spared the disgrace of dying unmarried. At times, a lack of dowry has condemned the least attractive women to live alone; and the offices of religion have imposed celibacy for at least a part of life upon groups like the Vestal Virgins in Rome and for the entire lifetime upon nuns and other Christian recluses. In none of these cases, however, did women choose to live alone because they hoped thereby to realize a fuller life than they could find in the married state. In the religious orders, they dedicated their virginity to the service of the Deity, and at most hoped to profit in the life to come for their loss on earth.
This is the great difference between celibate women of the past and those of the present time. With our enormous number of unattached men, it would be foolish to imagine that the great majority of single women in America could not marry if they wanted to do so. Man proposes, but woman dictates when he shall do it. Why do so many women elect to walk through life alone?
Doubtless the growth in democratic ideals, which has been steadily working among women since 1870, has had much to do with it. Women have ceased to be merely "the sex"; they have become individuals. Under simpler conditions of life, such as prevailed in our colonial period, if a woman found a man of her race, religion and social position, who was personally agreeable to her, little more was necessary to insure a happy marriage. But now a woman seeks fulfillment not only for her personal liking, but for all the qualities of her varied personal life. She has not only racial, religious and social interests, but she has an intelligent attitude towards the whole of life; she has musical, dramatic or literary tastes; she is interested in social justice or in the vested interests of caste; she cares for travel or she desires a quiet home; and in a hundred other directions she is an individual. Such a complex individuality does not easily find its complement. A person who merely likes music can generally find it; a person with a cultivated musical taste must search for music that suits him.
All this uncertainty is emphasized by the examples of marital unhappiness that intrude themselves on every hand. We have in our midst nearly a million divorced people. The deserted wife and mother is one of the greatest and most common problems that confront social workers. Our funny papers find the majority of their humor in deceived and deceiving wives and husbands. The drama and the novel burden us with sex problems. Yellow journalism lives on the tragic
