The article is written in a weird way which suggests that women are pursuing better options and are happy about that, but statistics don’t bear that out. Self-reported life satisfaction for women has been declining since the 1970s: https://docs.iza.org/dp4200.pdf
Something I’ve noticed is that American parents of the boomer generation have pretty much abdicated their role in getting younger people paired up. Young people don’t know what they need in a partner (how could they, they don’t have the experience) and aren’t good at estimating their own market value. As an immigrant I mocked the idea of arranged marriage when I was young, but most of my cousins had marriages that were facilitated to some degree and most ended up with good matches. If my boys aren’t hitched up by 30 I’m going to seriously consider the option.
Ha! That reminded me of a time in my teens (25 years ago). I have always been extremely shy, and thus was the one in my (male) friend group without a girlfriend.
Two times, a friend of mine fixed a meeting with a girl (different girl each time) where he told the girl that "his friend liked her" (I was his friend) and also told me that "her friend liked me". At parties, we got to meet (each with the assumption that the other person liked us) and both times we became boyfriend/girlfriends.
Both times we were very young to get into a long term relationship (I was 15 at the time), but in hindsight, I am impressed how simple it was. Just a matter of "breaking" that illusory barrier of fear of rejection.
Better options, does not necessarily mean more happiness. The better options are usually independence and physical security, and they come with a price, of which happiness might be one of them. After all, western societies have long moved into a direction where actual happiness is not as important as the fake-happiness from economic factors and social standing, or recently the kick from entertainments.
Something I’ve noticed is that American parents of the boomer generation have pretty much abdicated their role in getting younger people paired up. Young people don’t know what they need in a partner (how could they, they don’t have the experience) and aren’t good at estimating their own market value. As an immigrant I mocked the idea of arranged marriage when I was young, but most of my cousins had marriages that were facilitated to some degree and most ended up with good matches. If my boys aren’t hitched up by 30 I’m going to seriously consider the option.