Traister intended this book to be a snapshot of what she thought was a current trend for American women – being single and making a big impact on the social, economic and political segments of American society.  What she found was that while marriage statistics have indeed been changing in recent generations, as  women marry later or not at all, single women have been change makers in America for decades.

Through exhaustive research and close to 100 interviews of young adult women from a variety of different cultures and backgrounds she found that many are rethinking marriage.  They are doing it in numbers that have made a “dramatic reversal” in demographics comparing today to the 1960s.   She examines what marriage means to them and how changes in this traditional institution are effecting families and society.  These women are proving they are a force to be reckon with as they develop new lifestyles outside of marriage and are pursuing their independence.