Single Working Womens Week – SWWAN

Yes, restaurants are having to get used to the idea that not everybody comes in a couple. The MSN City Guide writes “Dining Solo? Join the Crowd” to point out that restaurants who respect these diners should consider offering the following:

• a variety of communal reading material
• lots of wines by the glass or splits (hey, restaurant owners, this is a great idea)
• preset tables for one that aren’t in obnoxious locations like in the front window or behind the kitchen doorway

They mention the desirability of a “dining counter” (as opposed to a dumpy lunch counter) where singles can talk to each other if desired, or chat with the cook/waitstaff about the food, the weather, da Bulls or whatever.

Many women wouldn’t think of dining alone. Hey, the world is beginning to pay attention to your needs–and your money. Consider the alternatives and have a new and possibly deligtful epxerience!

Nice to see our neighbors hard at work trying to understand and reframe some of the bias against women in the Phillipine workplace. The story reports that many local employers will hire single women–often because they feel perfectly okay paying them less than a man–but then when female employees get married, they’re seen as a liability because they can get pregnant. Interesting view–probably not so different from that of many U.S. employers.

The Internet is the communal mind of the world; it is the tool by which the unheard are beginning to be heard, the unseen, coming into the light. The downtrodden are being spoken up for more than ever, as the web makes it possible for many more of us to know the truth and understand what is needed. The Internet is bringing women together in unprecedented ways, giving a voice to those who have hitherto had no forum.

At SWWAN we welcome this marvelous intricate network of human thought as the path by which the world will come to understand the special passion and creativity that single women bring to making the world a better place.

Come on, guys. This really goes in the “Well, duh” category in my book. Sorry, Toronto Star, but Co-operative marriage helps female heart health seems like a pretty lame excuse for a news story. Okay, okay. We are not surprised that researchers are THIS FAR BEHIND in conducting their studies, but that doesn’t mean it qualifies as news.

Isn’t it amazing how something almost every woman alive knows is just now being discovered by science? Stay tuned. More surprises are sure to emerge…

Almost unbelievable–that a young woman just out of college could rent a room for $55 a week in New York (even back in 1993 that was an incredibly low price). Okay, so that dream ended in 1996 when the landlord, a nonprofit, evicted all its single women tenants–presumably so it could start charging more and get more turnover. A sound business decision, of course. But I wonder what happened to the mission they were fulfilling when they first created Leo House…

Today more single women can afford to buy their own place to live–22% of all homes in the U.S. are bought by single working women. Thirty-five years ago a single woman couldn’t even get a mortgage; so we’re making progress.

Now if we could get busy on fixing the tax laws…

Two great stories of hard-working single women who decided, that despite not finding Mr. Right, they wanted to become mothers. I love the part about how one of them was required to visit a psychotherapist “to see if she was doing it for the wrong reasons.” Oh, brother. If anything, maybe we ought to be requiring that sort of thing of ALL prospective parents, including married couples. In any case, the therapist pronounced her “much more prepared than many married couples” to have a child. After having her first child through artificial insemination, this young woman went on to adopt a second child who came from Kazakhstan. When that child, Emily, asks again how she got here, her mom tells her, “Chris (her brother) grew in my belly; you grew in my heart.”

In the second case, the mom who was an inner city teacher was already nurturing in her classrooms many children of the foster care system. When she knew it was time to become a mom, she decided to adopt mixed-race kids–having the advantage of understanding and having dealt with the kinds of issues kids can have when they’ve been in that system. I love this: she takes the kids to visit their siblings who were adopted into other families!

Beautiful stories. Courage. Compassion. Caring. Bless the single working women who find it in their hearts to face the challenges and the obstacles involved in giving their love and commitment to children.