Not sure what the etiquette is here ref sharing articles but this is an interesting discussion point ref single women and labels.
I call myself a 'single mum' because I'm single and a mum, despite having a fifty fifty custody arrangement, I am a single person who is parenting alone when I'm with a the kids and still working for, and running a family home when they're with their dad.
Even if/ when I'm on a relationship I still call myself a single mum because since divorce, I've never been in a stable secure longterm partnership.
I don't call myself a divorcee tho because it sounds so dated.
Despite my feminist leanings, I went against all my principles and changed my name to my husband's when we we'd.
I had a horrible childhood and a difficult adulthood so I wanted to get a 'clean slate' (reader: the name change did not change my poor traumatised soul).
When we divorced I was going too revert to my own name but the kids got upset so I decided 'what's in a name?' and am still using NG my married name and the suffix Mrs despite not really believing that we need labels.
I think I just like the pretence of security that beibg called Mrs gives me.
If my ex marries again I feel like I should relinquish the title altogether.
I hate the term 'spinster'.
I was a determinedly single woman for many years until I became seriously broody.
I was once called a spinster in my twenties by an older, very unhappily married woman. I thought it was a horrible term then and I do now, although I recently learned the true meaning of the word and its actually empowering and liberating but the context in which it's primarily used is not meant as a compliment.
So, despite still being a Mrs I don't really label myself anything other than a woman