Single woman working in the 1970's.

Due to the fact that LDS culture was centered around marriage and families, LDS individuals who remained single well into adulthood faced a unique reality. Often times these individuals felt  as thought they were being denied their “most righteous desires” of being able to experience family life.[1] Advice literature encouraged those who were unmarried to work on further developing themselves, in part to make them more desirable companions. For instance, they were advised to remain active in religious, educational, and social environments. By continuing to participate in such activities, literature suggested that they would improve their chances of finding a marriage partner. However, many single women who had established careers and completed degrees in higher education, felt as though their success was in part responsible for their singular status. One woman writes, “I finished my Ph.D. last summer. While I don’t regret having completed it, I honestly think that I’ve educated myself out of a lot of good dating.”[2] As demonstrated, when a women ventured outside of the norms established in LDS advice literature, it was viewed as a threat to traditional gender roles. This made it more difficult for single women to find their place within the home, school, and religious spheres.