Today, there are millions of unmarried women and numerous marriages are ending in divorce, but neither the narratives of society - nor the consequences that inevitably follow - have changed. Lives of single women still become the target of undignifying curiosity, assumptions, judgements and other discomforting emotions. Society cannot continue to operate on assumptions and myths; rather, it needs to know what the lives of single women are, and how they both impact, and are impacted by, society.

In Demystifying And Dignifying Singlehood: Life Journeys Of Single Women Across The Globe, Uma Jain aims to bridge a gap in the social narratives, by sharing the journeys of 15 single women from India, the USA and the UK, who have lived a significant part of their life outside the dominant paradigm of marriage. The book highlights patterns and themes of significant commonalities across cultures.  It also postulates the roles single women, partnered women, men, and society as a whole, need to play to create a world in which people of diverse social identities can live and contribute to their fullest potential.

The accounts of the lives shared in this book will touch not only the lives of single women who are on a journey of creating a new path for themselves, but others - men as well as women - who are not served well by society's dominant narratives. Hopefully, they will show new pathways through various unexplored terrains. Making these ongoing stories of single women public will also build collective awareness, and will be a step towards reconstructing and reshaping the dominant narratives in society.

The Author

Dr. Uma Jain has worked in Academia, as an internal and external OD consultant, and as an organizational leader in India and other countries, including the USA, Austria, Dubai, Singapore and Mauritius. Using self as an instrument-of-change, she has done pioneering work as a practitioner as well as a writer, which integrates core individual and collective values, and is meaningful and transformational. Her passion for building a society more sensitive to diversity and gender issues has led to this book.