It struck me as I was thinking about the last two Supreme Court nominees offered by President Obama, that we may be seeing a pattern. Single, well educated ivy-league women, with no children.
The reason this little discussed fact caught my attention is because I have been working on a book for the past several years about the lives of accomplished professional black women, at least 70% of whom are also unmarried (the childless number among this group is closer to 50%) in the United States. My book which finally comes to the marketplace in October 2010, is titled, Black.Female.Accomplished.Redefined. (Smiley Books, A Hay House Publishing Partner). The book contains a year worth of original research and groundbreaking insights into why GENX and GENY college educated black women in particular are having such a difficult time finding suitable husbands and mates (among many other topics the book covers).
However, what I have noticed is that this trend extends well beyond well-educated successful black women (who unfortunately are the subject of intense scrutiny by ABC's Nightline seemingly almost monthly). This trend also extends to white, Latina and other women who are also well educated, powerful and publicly well known.
The question is this: Does a woman have an even harder time finding love, marriage and family when she is well educated? You'll have to read my book for the answers we uncovered, but I'll give you a hint -- consider Oprah, the most powerful and well known woman in the world arguably. Or former U.S. Secretary of State Condi Rice -- smart, God-fearing, attractive, nice, fun, accomplished but alone. The nation's first Latina Justice, Sonia Sotomayor smart, nice, smart, accomplished, but alone. You get the point.. Now comes Elena Kagan -- ivy league educated, smart, great career, engaging personality, but alone.
My point is this: How ironic that Justices O'Connor and Ginsburg who came from an era where women were supposed to be seen and not heard, bear children, be married and stay at home ascended to the heights of their profession later in their lives yet also married, and had families of their own. Yet, in this new modern supposedly evolved 21st Century, accomplished women more and more are finding themselves alone, "never married," and without children of their own for most, if not all of their lives.
It almost makes you wonder how much progress we have made after all!