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Kamala Harris is making history as the first woman, and first woman of color, to serve as Vice President of the United States. Of course, like any boss would, she is adjusting well to the role, calling shots and making her presence known as the Madame. And her husbae, Doug Emhoff, is right by her side, in a shift we stan: playing the supportive role of the very first second gentleman in history.

As the country is recovering from Valentine's Day mode, experts are calling out an interesting marriage trend, which Harris is interestingly becoming the face of: a growing demographic of women marrying later in life—if at all. And now, the median age of first marriage has also been steadily increasing, with around 16% of Americans never marrying until their late 40's. Additionally, last year there were approximately 40 million never-married women age 15 and older in the U.S., compared to 27 million in 2000.

And Auntie Kamala is a walking, talking, bossing poster child of it all.

Bella DePaulo, a California-based social scientist and the author of Singled Out: How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, and Ignored, and Still Live Happily Ever After, believes these demographic trends do mean that, statistically, it is increasingly likely that "more women in the public eye will be people who have been unmarried their whole life."

Additionally, Kamala, who does not have biological children of her own, is also part of this newfound wave of women who have decided not to have children, to have fewer children, or simply having them later in life. When she became the first Black American and Asian-American to serve as California's attorney general in 2011, she wasn't married, she had no children. She didn't even meet her now-husband, until she was in her late 40's after her and Emhoff, a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer, were set up on a blind date in 2013 by Harris' best friend.

But Emhoff always knew they would be married. She wrote in her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold:

"The morning after our first date, [Doug] sent an email to set up future dates, writing, "I'm too old to play games or hide the ball ... I really like you, and I want to see if we can make this work." No games. To the point. Maturity in the forefront."

Less than a year later, they were married. And, Harris shared in Instagram, "We've been making it work ever since."

And by "making it work," we mean quitting-his-job-and-holding-her-Bible-while-she's-sworn-in-as-one-of-the-leaders-of-the-free-world.

--

OK this is all nice, sis, but what point are you trying to make, what are you trying to say?

Women are unapologetically moving in sync, and we are making our own rules outside of the misogyny that we've grown so accustomed to. Kamala found love at 49, got married at 50, became a stepmother and now is Vice President of the United States.

Let's normalize women believing that they can do anything, even inventively changing the world. And they can do so without having to be married...yet.

Are you a member of our insiders squad? Join us in the xoTribe Members Community today!

Featured image via Giphy

 

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