I started dating my husband when we were sixteen, we married when I was 22, and I’m now 52. So I’ve been with him so long that I can honestly say that I’ve never been single except when I was a child.
As a woman, I must add that marriage gives me a great deal more financial security. Certainly that’s not why I’m with my husband (I’m with him for the sex…gotcha! Actually, sex is a big part of it!). But there is no way that my salary as a medical technologist would have been enough to be anything but just “comfortable.” Insurance especially would be a huge issue. Right now, my husband pays for all the life insurance, car insurance and home-owners insurance; we use my job for health insurance because it’s a better deal.
Also there’s the retirement plans–I doubt we will ever retire (we’ll work until our health fails or we die, whichever comes first). But at least my husband has something going in the way of retirement savings, while I have nothing. Absolutely zilch.
It’s a fact that the largest group of people living below the poverty line in the U.S. are single mothers/children. Although no one will dare to say this, the best way for a woman to climb out of poverty is to get married.