Sociologist and author, Kay Trimberger will discuss “The New Single Woman: Challenging the Soul Mate Ideal” on Thursday, October 12, at 12 p.m., in the Hampton Room of the Malott Commons, 61传媒. Guests may bring a lunch or purchase one at the Malott Commons Dinning Hall. This event, sponsored by the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Commons and the Intercollegiate Women’s Studies Center of The Claremont Colleges, is free and open to the public. For more information please call (909) 607-9372.
Sociologist E. Kay Trimberger’s recent book, The New Single Woman (Beacon, 2005) will provide the framework for this lunchtime lecture. Trimberger’s book will be available for purchase at the event and a book signing will follow the lecture. Drawing from personal accounts, The New Single Woman debunks the myths and stereotypes surrounding single women. She explores the ways in which single women over 35 are creating fulfilling lives through extended family and networks of friends rather than seeking the soul mate ideal. Her analysis of the new single woman suggests alternatives to traditional coupling and speaks to the anxieties of single women in their 20s and 30s, arguing that coupled women and singled women are not different or in competition, but are at opposite ends of a continuum.
Trimberger is professor emerita of women’s and gender studies at Sonoma State University and a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at University of California, Berkeley and has received many research grants, including support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Murray Research Center at Harvard University, and the California State University. Trimberger, a single mother who has never married, has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Chicago.