Kate Bolick

“Whom to marry, and when will it happen—these two questions define every woman’s existence.” So begins this bold, original keynote from journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick. Using her own experiences as a starting point, Bolick weaves together the past and present to examine why­ she—along with over 100 million American women, whose ranks keep growing—remains unmarried.

After a half century of ascent for women, which coincided with the descent of men, we’ve reached a historical point where career-minded women are finding fewer suitable mates, and are marrying later and in fewer numbers. What does this mean for women, for men, and for our society? This unprecedented demographic shift, Bolick explains, is the logical outcome of hundreds of years of change that has neither been fully understood, nor appreciated. It’s an unreservedly inquisitive talk that asks us to acknowledge the opportunities that exist within ourselves to live authentically.

Today, increasing numbers of adults across North America are single—and not only are they unattached, but they’re happy to be that way. At the same time, companies are still failing to market to—or in any way target—this massive, exploding demographic, which represents millions of people and hundreds of billions of dollars in spending power. To make matters more astonishing, many companies still don’t know who these single people are, because culture itself is still trafficking in outdated perceptions, myths, and stereotypes—think shopworn themes like “busy moms” and “digitally obsessed millennials.”

In this timely keynote, Kate Bolick demystifies the singles market and debunks our most pernicious cultural depictions. Single people shop and spend differently than coupled people. They're not necessarily obsessed with dating or getting married. They are far more social than is believed. They spend a lot of time and money on themselves, and also on others. Moreover, single people resent their invisibility in the culture at large. They are tired of living in a world where they are misunderstood—especially when everything is marketed to married people with children. This means that there’s not only a great deal of money to be made by accurately representing single people, but doing so actually improves the social fabric, as the ads we live with are an enormous factor in shaping perceptions. The only way to truly get rid of outdated perceptions of who singles are, Bolick argues, is to create a media world that reflects their reality.