There's Hope!

Upon receiving my copy of Newsweek last night, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cover story was devoted to dispelling the myth (that I remember being popularized on the TV show Designing Women) that women over the age of 40 are more likely to be the victim of a terrorist act than to get married. The article was devoted to both new research statistics that argue against the previously stated study and to a follow-up with the women that were interviewed for the Newsweek article 20 years ago. They managed to find 11 of 14 of the women who had been interviewed, and considering the statistics that they had an approximately 4 percent of eventually marrying, it came as a surprise that 8 of them are now happily married. In fact, according to the more recent census report, women who have never been married by the age of 40 have a 40% chance of marrying. And what I liked even better is that the study found that women who have higher educations, while marrying later, actually have higher marriage rates. For a woman with an advanced (beyond bachelor's) degree, the average age of first marriage is now 30. Hmmm, that puts me right about at the point where I don't need to yet worry. I also liked the fact that they added a small article dispelling the myth that having a degree or advanced education no longer puts a woman at a disadvantage to marrying - they are actually getting married at higher rates than those who have no education beyond high school. I hate to be so immature, but "so there!" to all those who attempted to discourage from focusing on my education. Of course, all these averages and statistics aren't necessarily completely relevant to the frum world - I am sure the averages are off quite a bit. But in general, it does give hope (not that I had yet given up). Thanks Newsweek!