Being Single on Noah's Ark

Following World War II, many returning GIs replaced the positions of female wartime workers. As a result, many women were faced with taking boring, low-paying positions. As on alternative to this grim prospect, many of these women took advantage of the influx of returning GI bachelors-and the subsequent demand for wives-and began getting married and starting families, thus beginning the "baby boom." As a result, stereotypes were created to explain why some people chose to remain single and the conditions they supposedly faced. These stereotypes were beliefs held to explain the "deviants" and were in no way proven facts. In fact, singles now make up a small majority of the population. Being Single on Noah's Ark is a summary of these trends over the past fifty years and further explores studies made in 1980 and 2005 in order to determine whether the stereotypes held about singles were myths or realities. Book jacket.

Leonard Cargan is professor emeritus at Wright State University