Les femmes seules en hausse

Cet article de Steve Doughty, publié dans le Daily Mail, rappelle que le nombre de femmes seules en âge de travailler augmente.

Cette évolution statistique n'est pas sans conséquences pour le levage de fonds.

Une femme seule qui gagne sa vie est bien plus susceptible de répondre à des appels charitables et de donner du temps au titre du bénévolat.


The Bridget Jones generation: How half of women aged 18-35 are living alone

Trend: Fewer than half of young women now share their lives with a man - just like movie singleton Bridget Jones
Fewer than half of young women now share their lives with a man, researchers said yesterday.
Some, like movie singleton Bridget Jones, live alone while others are forced by the high cost of housing to remain with their parents.
A study shows that just over half of all women aged between 18 and 34 – 50.8 per cent – do not live with a partner.
The single majority reflects a big increase in the numbers who either by choice or necessity live with their parents, who have put their career before relationships, or have become lone mothers.
Less than 30 years ago well over half the women in the same age group were married, and around two thirds were living full-time with either a husband or boyfriend.
The figures were compiled by the European Union’s Eurostat statistics arm from figures collected from across EU countries by Brussels.
They also showed more than six out of ten men in the same age group are on their own – although men have always married or taken live-in partners at an older age than women.
In Britain the rise of singledom is partly a product of university or higher education for greater numbers of girls, together with far more opportunities for well-paid careers for young women.
However, the high cost of housing is also persuading many to stay at home with their parents.
It may also be that well-educated and well-paid young women are far more choosy about the qualities of the men they may pick as partners. Among less well-off young women, the ‘couple penalty’ built into the benefits system discourages the forming of partnerships.
Single mothers can lose as much as £200 a week in benefits and tax credits if they live with their child’s father or another man, and British official statistics have shown there are 1.2million couples who keep separate homes and regard themselves as ‘living apart together’.
Researcher and author on family life Patricia Morgan said: ‘We are always told the single life is exciting, but these figures hide a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of heartbreak. The number of women who want to be married and to have a family is very high.
‘There is a squeeze on women at both ends of the income range. At the bottom the benefits system stops them finding partners. Higher up it is hard to afford somewhere to live and there is no tax help for couples. The Child Benefit changes are hardly going to help.’

True reflection: A Scene from the film 'Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason' starring Renee Zellweger as Bridget - today 50.8 per cent of women aged 18-35 do not live with a partner
There is no equivalent in figures collected for the British government to the percentage for those ‘living in a consensual union’ that have been published for the first time by the EU.
However in 1981, according to counts by the Office for National Statistics, 53 per cent of women in England and Wales aged between 16 and 34, some 3.7million young women, were married.
Since teenagers aged between 16 and 18 were the least likely to be married, the percentage among 18 to 34 year olds would have been higher.
A further 10 per cent of women in the same age group are thought to have been cohabiting. Mealtimes have been one of the traditions that have suffered as more people live alone.
Almost three-quarters of Britons no longer have three meals a day, with snacking becoming the preferred form of eating.
Half of Britons admitted they snacked because they were bored, with almost a quarter describing themselves as emotional eaters who nibble when sad and stressed, the survey for food company Feasters found.
One in ten said they snacked because they were too busy to prepare a meal and 72 per cent said they never ate three meals a day.
Feasters boss Nicola O’Dwyer said: ‘Today’s generation appear to prefer quick, convenient snacks over preparing a meal.
‘This is far from surprising when you consider hectic work schedules, social lives and other activities, which fill up the day.’