The number of black women who will never marry is increasing.

Not all women want to get married so subtracting that % out of the pool still leaves a lot of women who actually want to get married out in the cold. This number is especially alarming when it comes to African American women. The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reports that

by the age of 30, 81 percent of White women and 77 percent of Hispanics and Asians will marry, but that only 52 percent of Black women will marry by that age. Black women are also the least likely to re-marry following divorce.

What can we do to turn this statistic around?

One thing is to send the right message to our children. Black women have the first opportunity to influence how black males view black women. It's important to show your strenght but it's also important to show your uniqueness as a woman. That we should be treated with respect and valued. It's time for black women to also be put on pedestal because we deserve that too. Not in a diva sort of way but in a "give and take" sort of way. A "working together" sort of way.

Show your sons/nephews how to treat a woman by the way he learns to treat you. That you have a feminine side and not just that tough exterior. Tell your daughters that they should know how to be independent but when they have children, they should have a mate helping them along the way. If you were a single mother who struggled and held it down, encourage something different for your daughters so she won't have it as hard. It's much easier to have someone else putting the kids to bed while you put away the dishes as opposed to being dead tired because you did it all by yourself. Let's smooth out the jagged edges and show more of the softer beautiful side that is "us" as well.