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36-465: Spinster or old maid is a term referring to an unmarried woman who is older than what is perceived as the prime age range during which women usually marry. It can also indicate that a woman is considered unlikely to ever marry. The term originally denoted a woman whose occupation was to spin . The closest equivalent term for males is " bachelor " or "confirmed bachelor" (or, in cases of homosexuality, " he never married "), but this generally does not carry

72-485: A Life of One's Own, Kate Bolick has written, "To me, the spinster is self-reliant and inscrutable. We think we know what the wife is up to and what the mother is up to but the single woman is mysterious. I like that mystery. So the term is a useful way to hold onto the idea of autonomy that can get so easily lost inside of marriage or motherhood". In 2005, in England and Wales, the term was abolished in favour of "single" for

108-465: A committed relationship leading to marriage) and a desire for isolation (i.e., fear of commitment ). Other reasons women may choose not to marry include a focus on career, a desire for an independent life, economic considerations, or an unwillingness to make the compromises expected in a marriage. Some writers have suggested that to understand why women do not marry, one should examine reasons women do marry and why it may be assumed they should marry in

144-409: A generation of women from experiencing romance and marriage or having children. In modern peacetime societies with wide opportunities for romance, marriage and children, there are other reasons that women remain single as they approach old age. Psychologist Erik Erikson postulated that during young adulthood (ages 18 to 39), individuals experience an inner conflict between a desire for intimacy (i.e.,

180-542: A home! Marry to escape the ridicule of being called an old maid? How dare you, then, pervert the most sacred institution of the Almighty, by becoming the wife of a man for whom you can feel no emotions of love, or respect even?" The Oxford American English Dictionary defines spinster as "an unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond the usual age for marriage". It adds: "In modern everyday English, however, spinster cannot be used to mean simply 'unmarried woman'; as such, it

216-522: A legal context: "a woman who has never married". Wordreference.com describes the "woman still unmarried" sense of spinster as "dated". Age is a crucial part of the definition, according to Robin Lakoff 's explanation in Language and Woman's Place : "If someone is a spinster, by implication she is not eligible [to marry]; she has had her chance, and been passed by. Hence, a girl of twenty cannot be properly called

252-628: A natural fibre. Ring spinning is one of the most common spinning methods in the world. Other systems include air-jet and open-end spinning , a technique where the staple fiber is blown by air into a rotor and attaches to the tail of formed yarn that is continually being drawn out of the chamber. Other methods of break spinning use needles and electrostatic forces. The processes to make short-staple yarn (typically spun from fibers from 1.9 to 5.1 centimetres (0.75 to 2.0 in)) are blending, opening, carding , pin-drafting, roving , spinning, and—if desired—plying and dyeing . In long staple spinning,

288-546: A softer, less twisted thread that is favored for fines and for weft . The ring was a descendant of the Arkwright water frame of 1769 and creates yarn in a continuous process. The yarn is coarser, has a greater twist, and is stronger, making it more suitable for warp . Ring spinning is slow due to the distance the thread must pass around the ring. Similar methods have improved on this including flyer and bobbin and cap spinning. The pre-industrial techniques of hand spinning with

324-431: A solvent that evaporates in the heated exit chamber. In melt spinning (nylons and polyesters ) the extruded polymer is cooled in gas or air and sets. All these fibres will be of great length, often kilometers long. Natural fibres can be divided into three categories: animals (sheep, goat, rabbit , silkworm ), minerals ( asbestos , gold , silver ), or plants (cotton, flax , sisal ). These vegetable fibres can come from

360-517: A spindle or spinning wheel continue to be practiced as handicraft or hobby and enable wool or unusual vegetable and animal staples to be used. The origins of hand spinning fibers is unknown, but is believed to have originated separately in several cultures around the world long before the common era. The oldest known twisted fiber was found in southern France, and archaeologists believe it was created around 50,000-40,000 BCE. People are thought to have originally twisted fibers together by rolling them up

396-490: A spinster: she still has a chance to be married". Yet other sources on terms describing a never-married woman indicate that the term applies to a woman as soon as she is of legal age or age of majority (see bachelorette , single ). The title "spinster" has been embraced by feminists like Sheila Jeffreys , whose book The Spinster and Her Enemies (1985) defines spinsters simply as women who have chosen to reject sexual relationships with men. In her 2015 book, Spinster, Making

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432-409: A variety (and/or combination) of reasons, including personal inclination, a dearth of eligible men (whose numbers can decrease dramatically during war conflicts), and socio-economic conditions (that is, the availability of livelihoods for women). Writer and spinster Louisa May Alcott famously wrote that "liberty is a better husband than love to many of us". Social status issues could also arise where it

468-405: Is a derogatory term, referring or alluding to a stereotype of an older woman who is unmarried, childless, prissy, and repressed." Currently, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines the "unmarried woman" sense of the term in three ways: (1) an archaic usage meaning "an unmarried woman of gentle family", (2) a meaning related to (1) but not tagged as archaic: "an unmarried woman and especially one past

504-465: Is the most popular, are viscose (the most common form of rayon), animal fibers such as wool , and synthetic polyester . Originally done by hand using a spindle whorl , starting in the 500s AD the spinning wheel became the predominant spinning tool across Asia and Europe. The spinning jenny and spinning mule , invented in the late 1700s, made mechanical spinning far more efficient than spinning by hand, and especially made cotton manufacturing one of

540-492: The adoption of artificial fibres . By then most production had moved to Asia. Kate Bolick Bolick attended Colby College and New York University. Kate Bolick is most well known as the author of New York Times bestseller Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own . In addition to her work with The Atlantic , Bolick contributes writing to Elle , Cosmopolitan , Vogue , The New York Times , and The Wall Street Journal , among other publications. Previously, Bolick

576-414: The common age for marrying" and (3) "a woman who seems unlikely to marry". Dictionary.com describes the "woman still unmarried beyond the usual age of marrying" sense of the term as "Disparaging and Offensive". A usage note goes on to say that this sense "is ... perceived as insulting. It implies negative qualities such as being fussy or undesirable". Also included is a sense of the word used specifically in

612-424: The first place. According to Adrienne Rich : Women have married because it was necessary, in order to survive economically, in order to have children who would not suffer economic deprivation or social ostracism, in order to remain respectable, in order to do what was expected of women, because coming out of ‘abnormal’ childhoods they wanted to feel ‘normal’ and because heterosexual romance has been represented as

648-448: The great female adventure, duty, and fulfillment In Law, a 'spinster' refers to an unmarried woman who had reached her majority. This was, in part, to reinforce the right to own property outside of marriage. Spinning (textiles) Spinning is a twisting technique to form yarn from fibers . The fiber intended is drawn out, twisted, and wound onto a bobbin . A few popular fibers that are spun into yarn other than cotton , which

684-451: The looms or to sell on in the putting-out system . After the invention of the spinning jenny water frame the demand was greatly reduced by mechanization. Its technology was specialized and costly and employed water as motive power. Spinning and weaving as cottage industries were displaced by dedicated manufactories, developed by industrialists and their investors; the spinning and weaving industries, once widespread, were concentrated where

720-494: The most important industries of the Industrial Revolution . The yarn issuing from the drafting rollers passes through a thread-guide, round a traveller that is free to rotate around a ring, and then onto a tube or bobbin , which is carried on to a spindle , the axis of which passes through a center of the ring. The spindle is driven (usually at an angular velocity that is either constant or changes only slowly), and

756-429: The process may start with stretch-break of tow, a continuous "rope" of synthetic fiber. In open-end and air-jet spinning, the roving operation is eliminated. The spinning frame winds yarn around a bobbin. Generally, after this step the yarn is wound to a cone for knitting or weaving. In a spinning mule , the roving is pulled off bobbins and sequentially fed through rollers operating at several different speeds, thinning

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792-478: The purpose of marriage registration. However, it is still often used when the banns of marriage are read by Church of England parish churches. A 2009 University of Missouri study of 32 women found that modern "spinsters" feel a social stigma attached to their status and a sense of both heightened visibility and invisibility. "Heightened visibility came from feelings of exposure and invisibility came from assumptions made by others". Women may not have married for

828-405: The rollers of the drafting system and, under these circumstances, the angular velocity of the traveller is less than that of the spindle by an amount that is just sufficient to allow the yarn to be wound onto the bobbin at the same rate as that at which it issues from the drafting rollers. Each revolution of the traveller now inserts one turn of twist into the loop of yarn between the roller nip and

864-399: The roving at a consistent rate. The yarn is twisted through the spinning of the bobbin as the carriage moves out, and is rolled onto a cop as the carriage returns. Mule spinning produces a finer thread than ring spinning. Spinning by the mule machine is an intermittent process as the frame advances and returns. It is the descendant of a device invented in 1779 by Samuel Crompton , and produces

900-546: The same connotations in reference to age and perceived desirability in marriage. Long before the Industrial Age , "the art & calling of being a spinster" denoted girls and women who spun wool . According to the Online Etymological Dictionary , spinning was "commonly done by unmarried women, hence the word came to denote" an unmarried woman in legal documents from the 1600s to the early 1900s, and "by 1719

936-449: The seed (cotton), the stem (known as bast fibres : they include flax , hemp , and jute ) or the leaf ( sisal ). Many processes are needed before a clean even staple is obtained. With the exception of silk, each of these fibres is short, only centimetres in length, and each has a rough surface that enables it to bond with similar staples. Artificial fibres can be processed as long fibres or batched and cut so they can be processed like

972-436: The sources of water, raw materials, and manpower were most readily available, particularly West Yorkshire . The British government was very protective of the technology and restricted its export. After World War I the colonies where the cotton was grown started to purchase and manufacture significant quantities of cotton spinning machinery. The next breakthrough was with the move over to break or open-end spinning , and then

1008-399: The thigh or between the fingers, although soon a stick was used to maintain tension and hold the twist in the fibers. People eventually discovered that adding a weight to the stick, often made of stone, wood, or clay and known as a whorl , helped to maintain momentum and left the hands free to draft the fiber. Whorl spindles are still the predominant method of spinning fiber in some parts of

1044-406: The traveller but, in equilibrium, the number of turns of twist in the loop of yarn remains constant as the twisted yarn is passing through the traveller at a corresponding rate. Artificial fibres are made by extruding a polymer through a spinneret into a medium where it hardens. Wet spinning ( rayon ) uses a coagulating medium. In dry spinning ( acetate and triacetate), the polymer is contained in

1080-401: The traveller is dragged around a ring by the loop of yarn passing round it. If the drafting rollers were stationary, the angular velocity of the traveller would be the same as that of the spindle, and each revolution of the spindle would cause one turn of a twist to be inserted in the loop of yarn between the roller nip and the traveller. In spinning, however, the yarn is continually issuing from

1116-498: The usual age for marriage") as "derogatory" and "a good example of the way in which a word acquires strong connotations to the extent that it can no longer be used in a neutral sense." The 1828 and 1913 editions of Merriam Webster's Dictionary defined spinster in two ways: By the 1800s, the term had evolved to include women who chose not to marry. During that century middle-class spinsters, as well as their married peers, took ideals of love and marriage very seriously, and spinsterhood

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1152-464: The world. The cultivation of cotton as well as the knowledge of its spinning and weaving in Meroë reached a high level around the 4th century BC. The export of textiles was one of the sources of wealth for Meroë. Hand spinning was an important cottage industry in medieval Europe, where the wool spinners (most often women and children) would provide enough yarn to service the needs of the men who operated

1188-489: Was being used generically for 'woman still unmarried and beyond the usual age for it'". As a denotation for unmarried women in a legal context, the term dates back to at least 1699, and was commonly used in banns of marriage of the Church of England where the prospective bride was described as a "spinster of this parish". The Oxford American Dictionary tags "spinster" (meaning "...unmarried woman, typically an older woman beyond

1224-467: Was indeed often a consequence of their adherence to those ideals. They remained unmarried not because of individual shortcomings but because they didn't find a man "who could be all things to the heart". One 19th-century editorial in the fashion publication Peterson's Magazine encouraged women to remain choosy in selecting a mate — even at the price of never marrying. The editorial, titled "Honorable Often to Be an Old Maid", advised women: "Marry for

1260-546: Was the executive editor of Domino , as well as a columnist for The Boston Globe's Ideas Section. Bolick's appearances include The Today Show , CBS Sunday Morning , CNN , Fox News , MSNBC , and NPR programs around the country. In her 2015 New York Times Bestselling book, Bolick asks and answers a question she posed in a 2011 cover story for The Atlantic : "How does a woman move through life alone?" Heather Havrilesky , writing in The New York Times , gave

1296-436: Was unacceptable for a woman to marry below her social rank but her parents lacked the funds to support a marriage within their social rank. In the early 19th century, particularly in England, women would fall under coverture , stating that all property and contracts in their name would be ceded to their husbands. This was particularly common in women who owned businesses. The First World War (1914–1918) prevented many within

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