By Carole Hallac

NEW YORK. More than twenty years have passed since the publication of Sex and the City, the bestseller book became a cult television series on the love life of single women in New York. The author, Candace Bushnell, who gave voice to the protagonist Carrie, has meanwhile written seven novels, married a classical dancer from whom she divorced after ten years, and then took refuge in a quiet (and unmarried) life in the Connecticut countryside.

[Translation provided by Carole Hallac]

Free from the biological clock
Bushnell has found love, but what are the prospects for single women over 50? Melanie Notkin, a New Yorker, single, and author of Otherhood, a book on the rising number of unmarried and childless women on the US, which is more than half the female population in their fertile years. “There is of course less choice compared to when they were in their 20s, but after their 50s many men look for a real relationship”, she explains. “There is a new dynamic. For example, after a divorce, mean have a hard time being alone while women are more resilient. They have the support of their girlfriends, and they are more confident because they don’t have the pressure of the biological clock.”

Prince Charming? No thanks
According to Notkin, the dating sites are a very effective instrument. “I met extraordinary men, one of them my best friend. The new encounters can evolve in a relationship, a friendship, or even a business connection”. What about sex? “After their 50s, women have less inhibitions because care less about other people’s judgement, especially other women. They don’t look for their prince charming, they have less expectations of the relationship, so they live in the present, they are more relaxed”. A recent study by Lumen, a British dating app for over 50, confirms it: among the 6000 participants, two thirds said to have a better and more adventurous sexual life thanks to lower inhibitions and more available time. In fact, half of them admit to having sex within the first 3 dates after meeting someone.

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