The old-fashioned optimistic assumption that women will all get married and be provided for by their husbands, cannot be maintained. It is possible, however, to be needlessly pessimistic on this head, as in a certain weekly journal which recently proclaimed that "two out of every three women die old maids." If we are to regard marriage as an occupation (an idea with which, on the whole, I disagree), it is still the most important and extensively followed occupation for women. In 1911 over 6-1/2 millions of women in England and Wales were married, or rather more than one-half the female population over 15; and considerably more than one-half of our women get married some time or other. In middle life, say from 35 to 55, three-fourths of all women are married. In early life a large proportion are single; in later life a large proportion are widows. Or we might put it in another way. From the age of 20 to 35, only two out of every four women are married, nearly all the rest being still single, and a very small proportion widowed; from 35 to 55, three in every four women are married; over 55, less than two in every four are married, most of the others having become widows. The proportion of women married has increased since the previous Census, but has decreased slightly at all ages under 45. The following table displays the proportion married and widowed per cent of the different age-groups. +-------------------------------------+ | Ages. | Single.| Married.| Widowed.| |--------|--------|---------|---------| | 15-20 | 99 | 1 | 0 | | 20-25 | 76 | 24 | 0 | | 25-35 | 36 | 62 | 1 | | 35-45 | 20 | 75 | 5 | | 45-55 | 16 | 71 | 13 | | 55-65 | 13 | 59 | 28 | | 65- | 12 | 31 | 57 | | | | | | |All ages| 39 | 51 | 10 | +-------------------------------------+ If the figures were drawn in curves, it would be seen that the proportion of single women falls rapidly from youth onwards, and is quite small in old age; that the proportion married rises rapidly at first, remaining high for 20 or 30 years, and falls again, forming a broad mound-shaped curve; while the proportion widowed rises all the way to old age.