http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21zernike.html?em&ex=1169614800&en=b104feb86f0b5781&ei=5087%0A

Ideas & Trends
Why Are There So Many Single Americans?

By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: January 21, 2007
THE news that 51 percent of all women live without a spouse might be enough to make you invest in cat futures.

By Ron Barrett

51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse January 16, 2007

George Clooney Commitment-phobic, but not a typical single man.
But consider, too, the flip side: about half of all men find themselves in the same situation. As the number of people marrying has dropped off in the last 45 years, the marriage rate has declined equally for men and for women.

The stereotype has been cemented in the popular culture: the hard-charging career girl who gets her comeuppance, either violently or dying a slow death by late-night memo and Chinese takeout. Think Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction” and Sigourney Weaver in “Working Girl,” two enduring icons. In last year’s model, Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada” ends up single, if still singularly successful.