Single-womanhood, whether alone or in combination with motherhood, is not a technicality. It is a real, lived experience. It is the experience of living life as a woman without the support of a man in the domestic sphere, whether financial, social (status gained just by having a man around), or parental. Lack of a marriage certificate does not make a woman who otherwise depends upon the support of a man in her home single, except in the most technical sense. But singlehood is not a technicality, as I’ve said. It’s a political state, like poverty and unemployment.
So, while “starving” students living in condos and driving Porsches on their parents’ dime might count as unemployed and possibly even poor due to the fact that they don’t actually generate any income for themselves, I hardly think those kinds of technically “poor” or “unemployed” people would be justified in appropriating the experiences of people who really and truly don’t have access to any resources. I wouldn’t want those people calling themselves poor; I wouldn’t want them calling themselves unemployed. And I don’t think women with male support in every fashion but the actual marriage certificate should be appropriating the experiences of women who are really and truly *single* – doing without male support in the domestic sphere – by calling themselves single either.
