NDLI: Sex and the Single (Neoliberal) Girl: Perspectives on Being Single Among Socioeconomically Diverse Young Women

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Bay Cheng, Laina Y. Goodkind, Sara A.
Copyright Year	2015
Abstract	Young women’s orientation toward romantic relationships and being single is shaped not only by heteronormative gender expectations but also by their socioeconomic status (SES). The intersection of gender and class is itself situated in the midst of prevailing norms, including those stemming from neoliberal ideology. To learn how these normative conditions affect young women’s perceptions of being single, we analyzed open-ended survey responses from 274 single women in the U.S. who were between the ages of 18 and 22 and who occupied three distinct social locations: affluent undergraduates at a private mid-Atlantic university; low-SES undergraduates across New York State; and low-SES women in Western New York who were not in college. We identified eight themes that captured participants’ feelings about being single and assessed if and how the participants’ perceptions differed by social location. In the Discussion, we reflect on and summarize the thematic patterns found in participants’ responses, with affluent undergraduates seeming to characterize being single as positive and self-enhancing, the low-SES undergraduates seeing it as a strategy for self-advancement, and the low-SES non-students framing it in defensive, self-protective terms. Despite these differences, all participants seemed to draw on common neoliberal tenets. We argue that participants’ predominantly positive perspectives on being single may be at least partially attributed to commercialized feminism and an agency imperative that requires young women to cast all circumstances and conditions in light of individual choice, will, and responsibility.
Starting Page	181
Ending Page	194
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03600025
Journal	Sex Roles
Volume Number	74
Issue Number	5-6
e-ISSN	15732762
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2015-11-26
Publisher Place	New York
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Undergraduate women Low-income women Single women Intersectionality Neoliberal ideology Gender Studies Sociology Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Gender Studies Developmental and Educational Psychology Social Psychology

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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