Dating: Is there a Shortage of Eligible, Straight, Single Men? NO WAY!

On December 7, 2001 The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article on the shortage of women. The report showed a trend in men’s marrying age, waiting until their late thirties and early 40’s before making a life-long commitment. The underlying reason for this is probably that men have bought into the American family myth where the man is the head of the household only if he is the chief breadwinner. In other words, these men are trying to assert themselves professionally to a point where they feel financially independent with the means of supporting a family.

If one adds up the number of men in this age category (quite a few – their part of the baby boomer generation) and then adds up the relatively few generation X women who are usually between 4 and 10 years younger, 30 something women have at least 3 to 4 men to choose from apiece.

A 1986 national survey commissioned by Glamour magazine found a rising preference for the single life among women in their twenties and thirties: 90 percent of the never-married women said, "the reason they haven't married is that they haven't wanted to yet."

A review of fourteen years of U.S. National Survey data charted an 11 percent jump in happiness among 1980s-era single women in their twenties and thirties--and a 6.3 percent decline in happiness among married women of the same age.

The more women are paid, the less eager they are to marry. A 1982 study of three thousand singles found that women earning high incomes are almost twice as likely to want to remain unwed as women earning low incomes.

Final thoughts from Chris Williams
Another point (and I can verify this through my own experience) is that by the ages of 38 - 42 single men tend to find the dating game as monotonous, boring, and expensive with nothing to show for it. They begin to look past a woman’s hair, boobs, and butt to see a human being with wants, needs, and values similar to their own – a person with whom they can truly share life’s hidden surprises.