journal 6: WITHOUT A HUSBAN'.1.26.7

Journal 6: WITHOUT A HUSBAN’



1.26.7

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1.15.7
Unmarried and Single Americans WeekSept. 17-23, 2006
(U. S. Census Bureau):
Single Life89.8 million Number of unmarried and single Americans in 2005. This group comprised 41 percent of all U.S. residents age 18 and older.
54%: percentage of women (in America) without a husband; single; unmarried; live without partner!
60%Percentage of unmarried and single Americans who have never been married. Another 25 percent are divorced and 15 percent are widowed.
14.9 millionNumber of unmarried and single Americans age 65 and older. These older Americans comprise 14 percent of all unmarried and single people.
86Number of unmarried men age 18 and older for every 100 unmarried women in the United States.
55 millionNumber of households maintained by unmarried men or women. These households comprise 49 percent of households nationwide.
29.9 millionNumber of people who live alone. These persons comprise 26 percent of all households, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Parenting 32% Percentage of births in 2004 to unmarried women.
12.9 million Number of single parents living with their children in 2005. Of these, 10.4 million are single mothers.
40%Percentage of opposite-sex, unmarried-partner households that include children.
672,000Number of unmarried grandparents who were caregivers for their grandchildren in 2004. They comprised nearly 3-in-10 grandparents who were responsible for their grandchildren. (Source: American FactFinder)
Unmarried Couples4.9 millionNumber of unmarried-partner households in 2005. These households consist of a householder living with someone of the opposite sex who was identified as their unmarried partner.
Dating904The number of dating service establishments nationwide as of 2002. These establishments, which include Internet dating services, employed nearly 4,300 people and pulled in $489 million in revenues.
Voters 36%Percentage of voters in the 2004 presidential election who were unmarried.
Education82% Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older in 2004 who were high school graduates.
23%Percentage of unmarried people age 25 or older with a bachelor’s degree or more education.


Single women may hold the key to the 2006 election
By Patricia Murphy

Sara is a single 28-year-old financial analyst. Even though she has a master’s degree in public policy, she did not vote in the last election. The Texas native said that after moving among three states in six years, she had lost track not only of her polling place, but also of who was running for office.
“It was too confusing to change my registration for every election,” she said. “And I felt like I didn’t know the candidates well enough when I had just gotten to a place.”
She is among the 20 million single women who did not vote in the 2004 elections, according to the U.S. Census. But if Page Gardner has her way, single women will be the soccer moms of the 2006 elections: a desirable demographic that attracts candidate attention and resources, and most important, makes its voice heard at the polls.
Gardner, a veteran of many national races, founded Women’s Voices Women Vote in 2003 with Chris Desser, after observing the low turnout among single women in the 2000 elections--only 52 percent of single women voted compared with 69 percent of married women.
“The numbers just really jumped out at me,” said Gardner, a McLean, Va., resident.
Gardner poured over census and election data to find out more about the political and economic state of single women, as well as how to reach them. With financing from several progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org, she executed the first research and outreach campaign ever to single women.
Through phone calls and direct mail in 16 states, Gardner’s organization helped increase the number of single women voting in the 2004 presidential elections to 59 percent. But that voting block still lagged behind married women, whose participation jumped to 71 percent.
Gardner recently announced that the group will work in at least four states in the 2006 election--Pennsylviana, Ohio, Washingotn and Michigan. The unmarreid women's vote jumped 13 percent in those states in 2004, she said.
Nationwide, the number of single women living on their own has skyrocketed 87 percent in the last 20 years. The reasons include delayed marriage, steady divorce rates and wives outliving their husbands. According to Celinda Lake, a veteran pollster, winning single women and increasing their share of the electorate will be critical for Democrats to win in 2006 and 2008.
Over all, single women fall into three general categories: 47 percent have never been married, 23 percent are divorced and 23 percent are widowed. Three-fourths are over 35, with the largest group by far being baby boomers, many of whom are on the eve of their 60th birthdays.
Democratic Party insiders are taking Lake’s cue and identifying single women as a group of voters to target, comparing them to evangelical voters for the Republicans.
“Just as Karl Rove identified and mobilized a base of supporters who were natural allies for his party,” wrote Anna Greenberg, a Democratic strategist who worked for John Kerry’s presidential campaign, “single women have proven to be a reliably progressive voting block that is ripe to be mobilized by the Democrats in upcoming elections.” Greenberg's polling firm has worked closely with the group to research women on their own as a voting group.
To attract more single women to the polls, Gardner said politicians will have to demonstrate a much better understanding of who single women are and what they care about.
“Even though single women are in a lot of different circumstances, the one thing that we heard over and over was concern over their economic insecurity, the sense that they’re out there all alone,” Gardner said.
Gardner said that more than half of all single women earn less than $30,000 a year. As the only breadwinners, they are more likely to be working full-time, no matter the age of their children, and are less likely to own their own homes.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington studies quality of life issues for single women and found that economic issues were most important, especially for single mothers. Access to health care and childcare was paramount.
Although polls show that hectic schedules, frequent moves and lack of information have kept single women away from the polls, mistrust of politicians is another key factor.
Maybe that’s because politicians haven’t been paying attention to them, said Mary Springer, founder and president of the New York-based Single Women’s Alliance Network, an advocacy group.
“There are 48 million unmarried women in America today,” she said. “Where’s the voice? Where’s the identification?”
Springer said politicians don’t speak to single women, let alone offer policies designed to benefit them.
“When a candidate gets up and talks about family, baseball and apple pie, it pulls this huge population of single women and puts them on the outside looking in,” Springer said.
“Our time is coming,” she said. “It hasn’t happened yet. But when it finally does, it can’t be stopped.”
E-mail: pmm2113@columbia.edu

Single women outpace single men as homebuyers
By Thomas F. Coleman
It may be surprising to some, but nearly half of all purchases made at Home Depot and Lowes are made by women. This may be due in part to the fact that single women now represent the fasting growing component of home buyers in the United States.
According to the National Association of Realtors, married couples were buyers in 61 percent of all housing purchases last year. Single women represented the second largest share of the market, purchasing 21 percent of homes and condos in 2005, up from 18 percent in 1997.
Single men accounted for 9 percent of residential real estate transactions. Unmarried couples were involved in 7 percent of housing purchases. Joint purchases by other unmarried people accounted for the other 2 percent.
Who are these single women? Why are they buying real estate in such large numbers? And how do they differ from single men and married couples?
The answers to these questions are found in a new report -- "Buying for Themselves: An Analysis of Unmarried Female Homebuyers" -- released two months ago by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.
The Harvard report characterizes unmarried female buyers as "a diverse and highly segmented group comprised of single mothers, young singles, middle-aged divorcees and seniors" who purchased more than $550 billion in real estate between 2000 and 2003.
"Unmarried female buyers are older than married and unmarried male buyers, have higher shares of minority buyers, have lower incomes and, consequently, much greater incidence of housing affordability problems," the report says.
But despite affordability problems experienced by single women, their share of the market has dramatically risen while the share of married couples has dropped sharply. The report gives several reasons for this trend:
* A 20 percent increase in the number of unmarried women in the past decade, partly due to the fact that women are delaying marriage in favor of education and careers.* Fewer adult women than men chose to live with their parents, opting to form their own households instead.* The economic upside of owning -- which has been emphasized heavily by the media -- enhances the view of a growing number of women that marriage is no longer a pre-requisite to buying a home.* Divorced women have accumulated equity in homes they owned with spouses and can use that wealth to buy their own homes as their set up their own households.
Previously married women accounted for nearly two-thirds of unmarried female buyers while more than half of unmarried male buyers have never been married. This partially explains the younger average age of male buyers (37) relative to unmarried female buyers (42).
Another major difference between single male and female buyers is their living arrangements.
Among buyers profiled in the Harvard report, about 45% of single women lived alone, compared to 55 percent of single men. Only 15 percent of the men are single parents, in contrast to 30 percent of the women.
Unmarried female buyers have considerably lower incomes than single men who buy homes. "Their $37,000 median income is fully $11,000 less than for unmarried men," the report states.
Although unmarried adults of all types have had a combined market share of nearly 40 percent of home purchases for the past several years, real estate developers and marketers are only now beginning to notice the value of the "single dollar."
According to the Harvard report, one developer in Southern California has targeted single women by offering amenities they prefer, "including smaller units, gated access, fitness facilities, social interactions with neighbors, and other organizational and convenience features."
KB Home, a home builder in Cary, North Carolina, is targeting single men as potential buyers of its new condominiums. The condos were designed with the single male in mind: stone floors, stainless steel appliances and glass-walled showers instead of tubs in the master bathrooms.
The pitch is working. Single men have bought nearly half the 23 townhouses sold in the project's the first phase.
While single people are still more likely to be renters than owners, that reality is changing. One of the reasons singles are shifting from renting to owning is the tax breaks associated with home ownership: the ability to write of tax and interest payments.
So all you single renters, listen up. Buy now and lower your tax bill come April 2007.
© Unmarried America 2006
Thomas F. Coleman, Executive Director of Unmarried America, is an attorney with 33 years of experience in singles' rights, family diversity, domestic partner benefits, and marital status discrimination. Each week he adds a new commentary to Column One: Eye on Unmarried America. E-mail: coleman@unmarriedamerica.org. Unmarried America is a nonprofit information service for unmarried employees, consumers, taxpayers, and voters.