Singles studies
Bibliography

Section 10, Topic 33. Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Most psychological research is ahistorical. In the study of singles, though, it is particularly important to have a broad historical and cross-cultural perspective on issues of marital status and family matters. In this section are selected readings on these topics. Many more references can be found in other relevant disciplines such as history and anthropology, and at the website http://www.medusanet.ca/singlewomen/resources/bib_main.htm. In the set of references listed here, studies of single women are far more numerous than studies of single men. The greater scholarly attention to single women does seem to be characteristic of the literature more broadly.

At the end of this Section is a bibliography on Single Women in India.



Adams, C. (1996). A choice not to wed? Unmarried women in eighteenth-century France. Journal of Social History, 29, 883-894.

Adams, C. (1997). Devoted companions or surrogate spouses? Sibling relation in eighteenth-century France. In C. Adams, J. R. Censer, & L. J. Graham (Eds.), Visions and revisions of eighteenth-century France. Penn State Press.

Anderson, M. (1984). The social position of spinsters in mid-Victorian Britain. Journal of Family History, 9, 377-393.

Beard, M. R. (1934). The sex life of the unmarried adult: An inquiry into and an interpretation of current sex practices. NY: Vanguard Press. (Reprinted in A. J. Lane (Ed.), Mary Ritter Beard: A sourcebook.)

Bennett, Judith M. (1992). Widows in the Medieval English countryside. In Louise Mirrer (Ed.), Upon my husband's death: Widows in the literatures and histories of Medieval Europe. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Bennett, Judith M. (2000). 'Lesbian-like' and the social history of lesbianisms. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 9, 1-24.

Bennett, J.M., & Froide, A.M. (Eds.) (1999). Singlewomen in the European past, 1250-1800. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Berend, Z. (2000). "The best or none!": Spinsterhood in nineteenth-century New England. Journal of Social History, 33, 935-945.

Bernhardt, Eva M., & Frances K. Goldscheider. (2001). Men, resources, and family living: The determinants of union and parental status in the United States and Sweden. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63, 793-803.

Birkett, D. (1989). Spinsters abroad: Victorian lady explorers. NY: Dorset Press.

Borges, D. (1992). The Family in Bahia, Brazil, 1870-1945. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Buunk, B. (1983). Alternative lifestyles from an international perspective: A trans-atlantic comparison. In E. D. Macklin & R. H. Rubin (Eds.), Contemporary Families and Alternative Lifestyles: Handbook on Research and Theory (pp.308-330). London: Sage.

Byrne, Anne. (2008). Women unbound: Single women in Ireland. In Virginia Yans-McLaughlin & Rudy Bell (Eds.), Women alone. NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Chambers-Schiller, L. V. (1984). Liberty, a better husband. Single women in America: The generations of 1780-1840. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Chudacoff, H. P. (1999). The age of the bachelor: Creating an American subculture. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Dixon, R. B. (1971). Explaining cross-cultural variations in age at marriage and proportions never marrying. Population Studies, 25, 215-233.

Ehrenreich, B. (1983). The hearts of men: American dreams and the flight from commitment. NY: Anchor Books.

Ferguson, S. J. (2000). Challenging traditional marriage: Never married Chinese American and Japanese American women. Gender & Society, 14, 136-159.

Franklin, P. (Ed.). (1986). Private pages: Diaries of American women 1830s-1970s. NY: Ballantine Books.

Franzen, T. (1996). Spinsters and lesbians: Independent womanhood in the United States. NY: New York University Press.

Freeman, R., & Klaus, P. (1984). Blessed or not? The new spinster in England and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Journal of Family History, 9, 394-414.

Froide, Amy M. (2005). Never married: Singlewomen in early modern England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gatlin, R. (1987). American women since 1945. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi Press.

Goncalves, Eliane. (2007). Singular lives: Notions on 'lone women' in contemporary Brazil. Doctoral dissertation (Complete document in Portuguese). (Abstract in English.)

Gupta, G. S. (1976). The study of adjustment among unmarried Hindu and Muslim females. Indian Psychological Review, 13, 4-8.

Hanawalt, B. A. (1996). Patriarchal provisions for widows and orphans in medieval London. In M. J. Maynes, A. Waltner, B. Soland, & U. Strasser (Eds.), Gender, kinship, power: A comparative and interdisciplinary history (pp. 201-213). NY: Routledge.

Hartman, Mary S. (2004). The household and the making of history: A subversive view of the Western past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hassel, J. B. (2002). Choosing not to marry: Women and autonomy in the Katherine Group. NY: Routledge.

Hill, Bridget. (2001). Women alone: Spinsters in Britain 1660-1850. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Holden, Katherine. (2007). The shadow of marriage: Singleness in England 1914-1960. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.

Holder, D. P., & Anderson, C. M. (1989). Women, work, and the family. In M. McGoldrick, C. M. Anderson, & Walsh, F. (Eds.), Women in Families: A Framework for Family Therapy (pp.357-380). New York: W. W. Norton.

Holmes, K. (1998). 'Spinsters indispensable': Feminists, single women and the critique of marriage, 1890-1920. Australian Historical Studies, 29, 68-91.

Hufton, O. (1984). Women without men: Widows and spinsters in Britain and France in the eighteenth century. Journal of Family History, 9, 355-376.

Israel, B. (2002). Bachelor girl: The secret history of single women in the twentieth century. NY: William Morrow.

Jansen, W. (1987). Women Without Men: Gender and marginality in an Algerian town. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Jethani, U. (1994). Single women. Jaipur, India: Rawat Publications. (About single women in India)

Johnson, R. W., & DaVanzo, J. (1998). Economic and cultural influences on the decision to leave home in peninsular Malaysia. Demography, 35, 97-114.

Krishnakumari, N. S. (1987). The status of single women. In Status of Single Women in India: A study of spinsters, widows, and divorcees (pp.165-185). New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House.

Levi-Strauss, C. (1971). The family. In H. L. Shapiro (Ed.), Man, culture, and society (p. 333-357). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Maynes, M. J., Waltner, A., Soland, B., & Strasser, U. (1996). Gender, kinship, and power: A comparative interdisciplinary history. NY: Routledge. (Part 3. 'Fish without bicycles': Gender and the paradoxes of kinship.)

Meyerowitz, J. J. (1988). Women adrift: Independent wage earners in Chicago, 1880-1930. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Ono, H. (2003). Women's economic standing, marriage timing, and cross-national contexts of gender. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 275-286.

Palazzi, M. (1996). Work and residence of "women alone" in the context of a patrilineal system (eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Northern Italy). In M. J. Maynes, A. Waltner, B. Soland, & U. Strasser (Eds.), Gender, kinship, power: A comparative and interdisciplinary history (pp. 215-230). NY: Routledge.

Palmieri, P. A. (1980). Patterns of achievement of single academic women at Wellesley College, 1880-1920. Frontiers, 5, 63-67.

Paradise, S. A. (1993). Older never married women: A cross-cultural investigation. In N. D. Davis, E. Cole, & E. D. Rothblum (Eds.), Faces of women and aging (pp. 129-139). NY: Haworth.

Phinney, Harriet M. (2003). Asking for the essential child: Revolutionary transformations in reproductive space in North Viet Nam. UMI Dissertation Services. (about single women in post-war Vietnam)

Pickles, K. (2001). Colonial counterparts: The first American women in Anglo-Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Women's History Review, 10, 273-297.

Roos, P. A. (1985). Gender and Work: A Comparative Analysis of Industrial Societies (pp.1-20). New York: State University of New York Press. (Chapter 6. Marital status differences in labor-force behavior and occupational attainment.)

Rosenthal, N. B. (2002). Spinster tales and womanly possibilities. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Rotundo, E. A. (1993). American manhood: Transformations in masculinity from the revolution to the modern era.. NY: Basic Books.

Samara, E. M. (1996). Heading households and surviving in a man's world: Brazilian women in the nineteenth century. In M. J. Maynes, A. Waltner, B. Soland, & U. Strasser (Eds.), Gender, kinship, power: A comparative and interdisciplinary history (pp. 233-242). NY: Routledge.

Simmons, C. (1979). Companionate marriage and the lesbian threat. Frontiers, 4, 54-59.

Theodorson, G. A. (1965). Romanticism and motivation to marry in the United States, Singapore, Burma, and India. Social Forces, 44, 17-27. (Includes report of % wishing to marry in each place.)

Topley, M. (1975). Marriage resistance in rural Kwangtung. In M. Wolf & R. Witke (Eds.), Women in Chinese society (pp. 67-88). Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Williams, W. L. (1998). Social acceptance of same-sex relationships in families: Models from other cultures. In C. J. Patterson & A. R. D'Augelli (Eds.), Lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities in families: Psychological perspectives (pp. 53-71). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Vicinus, M. (1985). Independent women: Work and community for single women, 1850-1920. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wall, R. (1989). Leaving home and living alone: An historical perspective. Population Studies, 43, 369-389.

Watkins, S. C. (1984). Spinsters. Journal of Family History, 9, 310-325.

Weinbaum, B. (1999). Islands of women and Amazons: Representations and realities. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Weir, D. R. (1984). Rather never than late: Celibacy and age at marriage in English cohort fertility, 1541-1871. Journal of Family History, 9, 340-354.

Bibliography on Single Women and the Women's Movement in India

I. Women's Movement Organizing of Single Women

E Kay Trimberger, "Single Women and the U.S. Women's Movement: Insights from India," on http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2008/03/single-women-th.html

Jagmeet Y. Ghuman, "Single Women pad yatra in Himachal to seek justice," 3/2008 -http://himachal.us/2008/03/07/single-women%E2%80%99s-pad-yatra-in-himachal-to-seek-justice/4735/ngo/jagmeet

"AIDWA sets up seven panels," The Hindu, 11/05/2007 -

"Commission Paper on Problems of Single Women," for eighth national conference of All India Democratic Women's Union," Nov.,2007. To obtain e-mail aidwa@ndb.vsnl.net.in

Chhaya Datar and Hema Upendra, "Deserted Women Break Their Silence, in The Struggle Against Violence. Edited by Chhaya Datar. Calcutta: Mandira Sen for Stee, 1993.

Bela Bhatia, "Social Action with Rural Widows in Gujarat," in Martha Alter Chen, Widows in India: Social Neglect & Public Action. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998

Living Feminisms: Jagori, A Journey of 20 years, 2004. Available on-line at http://www.jagori.org/

II. Books/Articles/Memoirs about Single Women & Singleness

Chasing the Good Life: On Being Single. Edited by Bhaichand Patel. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2006.

Urvashi Butalia, "The Wonderfully Bearable Lightness of Being Single," in Ibid.

Madhu Kishwar, "Women, Sex & Marriage: Restraint as a Feminine Strategy," in Off The Beaten Track: Rethinking Gender Justice for Indian Women. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Advaita Kala, Almost Single (autobiographical novel). New Delhi: HarperCollins Publishers India, 2007.

Sunny Singh, Single in the City: The Independent Woman's Handbook. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2000.

Sunny Singh, "Fear of Meeting Mr. Right," in Single Women of a Certain Age. Edited by Jane Ganahl. Makawao, Maui, Hawaii: Inner Ocean Publishing, 2005.

Andrew Buncombe, "Bridget Jones dons a sari as Indian women discover 'chick-lit,'" The Independent, Dec. 9, 2007.

Somini Sengupta, "Careers Give India's Women New Independence, New York Times, Nov. 23, 2007.

Rama Lakshmi, "Sassy Chick lit finds new fans among India's young women," Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2007.

"No roof in Ahmedabad for single women," The Times of India, 11/02/07.

Kay Hymowitz, "World bows to the New Girl Order," New York Times, 10/28/2007

Maithili Chakvarathy, "Reality Bits for India's Young and Restless," Time7/18/07.

Lauren D. Klein, "Young single women in New Delhi who want to live solo are viewed with suspicion," Christian Science Monitor, 6/14/07.

"Being single sparks frowns, sceptic glances City pulse, The Hindu, 2/10/07

III. Academic Studies on Single Women

Asha Kachru, Single Women: No Problem!: Challenging Indian Realities. New Delhi: The Women Press, 2006.

Jyoti Puri, "Reading Romance Novels in Postcolonial India," Gender & Society, Vol. 11, #4, 1997: 434-452.

Urmila Jethani, Single Women. New Delhi:Rawat Publications, 1994.

Dr. Neshla ed., Single Women in Indian Perspective. Kurukshetra, India: Mirmal Book Agency, 1994.

Manjula Rathaur, Unmarried Working Women, Marriage and Career. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers, 1990.

N.S. Krishnakumari, Status of Single Women in India. New Delhi: Uppal Publishing House, 1987.

IV. Single Mothers

Paushpanjali Swain & Vijayan K. Pillai, "Living Arrangements among Single Mothers in India," Canadian Studies in Population, Vol. 32.1, 2005:53 - 67.

Deepti Priya Mehrotra, Home Truths: Stories of Single Mothers. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 20023

V. Widows

P. K. B. Nayar ed., Widowhood in Modern India. Delhi: The Women Press, 2006.

L. Thara Bhai, Widows in India. Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corp., 2004.

P. Adinarayana Reddy, Problems of Widows in India. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2004.

Martha Alter Chen, Widows in India: Social Neglect & Public Action. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1998

VI. Violence Against Single Women

Sunny Singh, Single in the City: The Independent Woman's Handbook. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2000.

Madhu Kishwar, "Sex Harrassment and Slander as Weapons of Subjugation," in Off The Beaten Track: Rethinking Gender Justice for Indian Women. New Delhi: Oxford University

Chhaya Datar ed., The Struggle Against Violence. Calcutta: Mandira Sen for Stee, 1993.

Elisabeth Armstrong, "Globalization from Below: AIDWA, Foreign Funding, and Gendering Anti-Violence Campaigns," Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 20 (1-2),2004: 39-55.

Bandana Purkayastha, MangalaSubramaniam, Manisha Desai and Sunita Bose, "The Study of Gender in India: A Partial Review" Gender & Society, Vol. 17, #4, 2003

VII. Marriage & Family

Madhu Kishwar, "Love & Marriage," and "Dowry Caculations: Daughter's Rights in her Parental Family," in Off The Beaten Track: Rethinking Gender Justice for Indian Women. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Susan C. Seymour, Women, Family and Child Care in India: A World in Transition. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

"The Dowry Scourge," Communalism Combat, vol 9, #84, Feb. 2003. Availble on-line at http://www.sabrang.com.

Thrity Umrigar, The Space Between Us. New York: HaperCollins, 2005. (A great novel about the relationship between two widows, an upper middle class woman and her maid.)