Spinster, In Praise of Women who Crave Their Solitude

Quick! What do you think when you hear the word spinster? Chances are good that you think of a never-married woman living with an apartment full of cats. Whatever image your mind immediately conjures up,  it's likely to have a negative connotation.

Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own by Kate Bolick takes a refreshing look at what it means to be a single woman by choice. It's less of a memoir and more of a history lesson on the kinds of women who have stood up throughout history to defy traditional female roles and stereotypes of Mother/Wife.

Spinster by Kate Bolick. Crown Publishing

Bolick presents the book as her own enlightening of sorts, she introduces us to the five women in history whom she relates most to because of their quest to define themselves first as individuals and then as women. These women are her five awakeners (whom are all writers of some variety and notoriety had either sworn off marriage or done so on their own, nontraditional terms). It's interesting for me, as a woman in her mid-thirties, to ponder what it was like to lack a choice in one's future. My generation grew up as the offspring of divorce, wedlock and normalized feminism and were probably the first group of women who honestly believed that they can tread any path that they choose, whether that means marrying and having children, staying single and focusing on one's career or any combination of both.

This book mingles the feminist historical context of what it is to be a single woman by choice as well as trace the author's own quest for self-discovery through re-examining the lives of her awakeners. She coins the term "spinster's wish" as her private desire "for the pleasures of being alone". And really what woman doesn't desire solitude from time to time? Whether that means a break from the kids/husband or the ability to fully immerse oneself in the things that fill one's life with passion?
Bolick encourages women of all states of coupling to take back the term spinster and make it into something positive.

Blogger note: I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. This review is entirely based on my opinion and contains my honest evaluation.