Contents

 

     INTRODUCTION

         Purpose    

         In/ter/dependence

         Structure

 

     THE INDEPENDENT WOMAN

         Statistically Speaking

         Ideologically Speaking

              Patriarchy

              The price of independence

         Ideological Validation

              Wellbeing studies

         Ideological Adaptation

         Summary

 

     BEFORE THE COMMON ERA

         Prehistorical

         Historical

              The Hebrews

              The Greco-Roman era

                    Athens

                    Rome

              The Celts

         Summary

 

     THE COMMON ERA

         Early Christianity

         The Middle Ages

         The Modern Era

         Summary

 

     THE INDEPENDENT AUSTRALIAN WOMAN

         The First Two Hundred Years

         The Early Twenty-first Century

         Summary

 

     MISOGYNY AND INDEPENDENCE

         Misogyny Defined

         Resistance

         Power Relations

         Conclusion

 

     REFERENCES

Introduction

 

This work is in memory of Dr Jill Reynolds whose work The single woman: A discursive investigation and whose unstinting support was so valuable as I developed my thesis Single women: Transition in theory and practice.