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Published: April 26, 2016, 4:32 p.m.

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For a very long time marriage was considered a foundation of\nAmerican life. Adulthood and marriage came hand in hand, and\nshortly after marriage children were the next logical step.\nBreaking that mold wasn\u2019t a socially acceptable or financially\nviable option for women. Today, however, marriage rates show us a\nvery different picture of what is considered the norm. To lend some\ninsight into these changing conventions,\xa0Point of\nInquiry\xa0welcomes Rebecca Traister, an author and\naward-winning journalist who is the writer-at-large for\nNew York Magazine

\xa0and a\ncontributing editor at Elle. Her new\nbook is All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the\nRise of an Independent Nation.\n

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In 1960, the majority of American women were married by age 29.\nToday only 20 percent of American women are married by then. For\nover a century the median age of first marriages for women in\nAmerica had remained between 20 and 22, but in recent years it has\njumped dramatically to age 27.\xa0 Overall, fewer American women\nare married than ever before and Traister has investigated what\u2019s\nbehind this dramatic change, and what it means for a new generation\nof single women in America.

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