Sociologist E. Kay Trimberger is "the new single woman" referred to in the title of her new book. Successful in her career, surrounded by friends and family, Trimberger is not depressed by the fact that her life doesn't include a partner. A never-married Californian with a 24-year-old son she adopted when he was a newborn, she's the poster girl for her cause -- living single contentedly. Trimberger and single women like her are part of a growing demographic.

According to the 2004 Census, just under 54 million women ages 15 and older -- or 45 percent of all women -- are single, up from 38 percent in 1970. These increasing numbers, Trimberger says, are in part the result of a widepread cultural expectation that one must marry their "soul mate." "The standard of a soul mate increases singleness," she says. "Women can have those higher standards because they increasingly don't need a man to support them economically." Those women who do marry do so later, divorce more frequently and remarry less often.

The above was extracted from an interview in Salon.com (subscription is required but you can get a single-day pass by viewing a commercial for a few seconds. It's well-worth it) with Ms. Trimberger where she talks about sex, celibicy, the quest for "soul mates", and other interesting tidbits about single women.