Socializing Singlehood: Personal, Interpersonal, and Sociocultural Factors Shaping Black Women’s Single Lives

Abstract

Popular discourse characterizes single Black women as desperate and dysfunctional, constructions of single status that reinforce broader stereotypes of Black women. Unfortunately, relatively little is known about how Black women define singlehood for themselves. The relative omission of Black women’s self-defined experiences of unmarried life from research is a gap that limits scholarly understandings of singlehood and Black women’s lives. To address this gap, 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted with single, cisgender, heterosexual Black women aged 25–46 years from diverse educational and marital history backgrounds. Thematic analysis yielded nine themes across sociocultural (complex portrayals and liberation), interpersonal (advice, support, and judgment), and personal (purpose, security, freedom, and frustration) life domains. Participants enacted a range of strategies in unmarried life including strategic singlehood, the intentional practice of maintaining single status to foster growth, maintain freedom, or ensure safety. Differences in singlehood were observed by maternal status, age, and marital history. Findings suggest singlehood is socialized through scripting and gendered racial socialization processes. Media featuring single Black women, advice and judgments from family, and shifting gender roles for women contributed to single socialization processes. Study findings suggest new directions for practice, research, and policy. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQ's website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684320939070