International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences e-ISSN : 3026-0892 p-ISSN : 3026-1422 Index: Harvard.
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Happiness of Single Women in the Context of Modern Society Bui Thi Huong Tram Institute for Human.
Family and Gender Studies.
Vietnam buihuongtram@yahoo.
Article Info:
Submitted:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Oct 6, 2025 Oct 28, 2025 Nov 10, 2025 Nov 15, 2025 Abstract The pursuit of happiness has become a central theme in both academic inquiry and social policy, yet the lived experiences of single womenAiparticularly within Confucian-influenced societiesAiremain understudied.
This study explores how single women in Vietnam define and experience happiness in the context of rapid modernization, industrialization, and globalization, all of which have significantly reshaped family structures and gender dynamics.
Based on qualitative data from 15 in-depth interviews conducted between April and August 2025, the study employs thematic analysis to examine how autonomy, economic independence, emotional well-being, and cultural expectations intersect in shaping perceptions of happiness.
The findings reveal that happiness for single women is a fluid, context-dependent construct, integrating traditional norms of familial responsibility with contemporary aspirations for individuality and self-fulfillment.
Despite structural inequalities and enduring social stigma, participants exhibited emotional resilience, financial agency, and a growing sense of empowerment.
This study contributes to feminist sociology by situating womenAos well-being within VietnamAos broader socio-cultural transformation.
It also offers practical implications for policies aimed at advancing gender equality, promoting social inclusion, and enhancing subjective well-being within the framework of sustainable development.
Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025.
Pages 1395-1411 https://ejournal.
yasin-alsys.
org/IJHESS IJHESS Journal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.
0 International License Bui Thi Huong Tram Keywords: Happiness.
Single Women.
Emotional Well-Being.
Gender Equality.
Vietnam
INTRODUTION
In contemporary societies, the pursuit of happiness has become not only a personal aspiration but also a key dimension of social development and public policy.
Yet, happiness is not a universal experience.
it is shaped by the interplay of culture, gender, and structural Among these, the happiness of single women represents an increasingly visible yet understudied phenomenon.
The rise of singlehood, including single motherhood, across both developed and developing nations reflects profound transformations in gender relations, family structures, and social expectations.
Industrialization, modernization, and globalization have redefined traditional roles, enabling women to attain greater autonomy while simultaneously confronting new social pressures.
In Western scholarship, extensive studies have analyzed the well-being of single women within welfare systems such as those in the United Kingdom.
Germany.
Norway, and the United States.
These works highlight both vulnerabilitiesAieconomic insecurity, social stigma, and emotional strainAiand sources of empowerment, including financial independence and self-realization.
However, empirical evidence from non-Western contexts remains limited, particularly in societies influenced by Confucian traditions, where womenAos happiness continues to be closely tied to family harmony and collective wellbeing.
Vietnam provides a compelling case for exploring this issue.
Despite significant progress in gender equality, cultural norms rooted in patriarchy and collectivism continue to shape womenAos social identities.
The increasing number of single womenAiwhether divorced, never married, or single mothersAisignals a shift in family configurations and gender relations.
Yet, their lived experiences and perceptions of happiness remain largely absent from scholarly analysis.
This study addresses that gap by examining how single women in Vietnam define and experience happiness in their everyday lives.
Through in-depth qualitative interviews, it investigates the interconnections between autonomy, emotional resilience, economic International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram security, and cultural negotiation, contributing both empirically and theoretically to the understanding of womenAos happiness in a rapidly changing society.
Literature review Single Women's Happiness - Academic Topic The happiness of single women has sparked many debates.
Early debates were largely male-dominated: men proposed and imposed certain value systems, normative scripts for behavior, and gendered roles for women and men.
Over long historical periods, through pre-industrial and early industrial social forms, femininity and masculinity were considered natural and unquestionable (Levine, 2.
These codes shaped perceptions and experiences of happiness according to gendered expectations.
A womanAos happiness was deeply tied to her Aufemininity,Ay as socially construed, and to the norms assigned to her It was only when women themselves began to reflect critically on what AufemininityAy meant, prompted by waves of feminist movements, that notions and experiences of happiness began to shift.
From the first wave of feminism at the turn of the 20th century .
riginating in Britain and growing in the U.
), to the second wave in the 1960sAe1970s in the West, and the third wave from the 1980s onward, feminist activism challenged prescribed gender norms and expanded the discursive space on what happiness could mean beyond male-defined templates.
From that point on, conceptions and experiences of happiness became a site of negotiation between the sexes, rather than a unilateral imposition by men (Friedan, 2.
In the past, there existed a gender contract that prescribed rigid gender roles within the family.
Women were assigned to the sphere of social reproduction as a matter of course, encompassing social reproduction, the nurturing of children, and the transmission of cultural values from one generation to the next.
Men, on the other hand, dominated the productive sphere, maintaining the material foundations of the household and making all major decisions.
MenAos authority in the family was reinforced by structures of economy, culture, religion, education, law, and politics.
In modern society, however, this traditional model has become problematic.
The traditional social contract can no longer be sustained as the family structure has undergone profound transformations under the impacts of industrialization, modernization, and globalization.
A growing diversity of family forms has emerged, including single-mother families, where women are often required to fulfill both Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025 Bui Thi Huong Tram feminine and masculine roles in raising their children.
New family forms have emerged, including single-mother families, in which women often shoulder the dual roles of both mother and father in childbearing.
In such contexts, women are often compelled to perform dual gender rolesAiboth the nurturing functions historically associated with femininity and the provider responsibilities traditionally assigned to men.
This dual burden highlights the persistent gendered nature of care work despite broader social change.
In Eastern cultures and customs, one of the primary purposes of marriage has traditionally been to maintain lineage, ensure family continuity, and build a household comprising both parents and children.
Single women, by contrast, fulfill only one aspect of this ideal, childbearing, challenges the institution of the traditional family (Nghiem, 2.
At the same time, an increasing number of women, particularly in large urban areas, are choosing single motherhood.
These women are often financially independent, educated, professionally employed, and socially empowered to make financially independent This transformation reflects both external and internal influences, most visibly manifesting in changes to the structure, composition, and typology of families.
The issue of single women has now become both an academic subject and a matter of public concern.
Networks of civil society organizations supporting single women have emerged, calling upon the government to adopt policy measures that support single women, not merely those relating to child adoption, so that they can raise their children and contribute to social development (Nguyen, 2.
Yet the debate on happiness continues worldwide, from West to East, from developed nations to developing ones.
Moreover, differing conceptions of happiness extend beyond theoretical discourse.
they are embodied in real social practices and choices.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for further in-depth, empirical research on the happiness of single women, research that can illuminate their subjective well-being, structural constraints, and the social meanings of autonomy and fulfillment in modern life.
A growing corpus of international scholarship has investigated the socio-economic realities of single women, particularly within advanced welfare states such as the United Kingdom.
Germany.
Norway, and France.
These studies have addressed a wide spectrum of issues encompassing material living conditions, gendered vulnerabilities, and access to social protection, while simultaneously advancing diverse frameworks for welfare intervention and policy design.
Since the 1970s.
Western industrialized societies have International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram undergone profound transformations in familial organization and kinship patterns.
The traditional nuclear familyAihistorically constituted by the father, mother, and childrenAihas gradually lost its hegemonic status amid rising rates of divorce, separation, and non-marital Concurrently, fertility patterns have shifted as women postpone childbirth and have fewer children over the life course.
Among these changes, the most salient structural reconfiguration has been the notable expansion of single-parent or lone-parent households (Klett-Davies, 2.
(Polakow & Halskov, 2.
(Shattuck & Kreider, 2.
In the United States, for instance, the proportion of births to unmarried women has increased markedly since the 1970s, positioning single women at the center of policy and scholarly debates concerning social reproduction, welfare dependency, and gendered In response, a range of policy instruments and welfare programs have been implemented to analyze and mitigate the implications of these shifts for employment, consumption, health, family stability, and child well-being (Bitler & Hoynes, 2.
Although there have been many studies in Western countries on the happiness of single women, findings remain diverse and sometimes contradictory.
Herbst .
found that life satisfaction among single women increased both in absolute and relative terms compared with single, childless women and married women.
Similarly.
Stevenson and Wolfers .
reported that African American single women in the United States exhibited significantly higher levels of happiness .
2%) than other groups of single women .
8%).
However.
Ifcher & Zarghamee .
reached the opposite conclusion, arguing that single women are, on average, less happy than other groups of women.
The mean happiness score among single women was 1.
966, lower by 0.
265 points compared to non-single women .
The unhappiness of single women, according to their findings, is associated with their unmarried status, consistent with extensive literature showing a strong positive correlation between marriage and happiness.
Marriage has been demonstrated to be one of the most powerful predictors of subjective well-being.
The Perception of Happiness among Single Women Exploring the perception of happiness among single women is inherently challenging because the very nature of happiness is shaped by oneAos subjective This subjectivity, in turn, is developed and formed through lived experiences, education, and culture.
Sometimes, there exists a tension between perception Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025 Bui Thi Huong Tram and action.
According to Yousry .
, perception consists of two parts: the first is our present awareness, what we may call our essence .
hat which we can also refer to as the heart or inner voice, representing our authentic sel.
the second is our personality, the aspect we use to present ourselves to the world.
These two dimensions of consciousness may conflict when our perceptions do not align with our authentic selves or with how we believe we ought to act.
When addressing this conflict of happiness conceptions among American women in the early 20th-century.
Friedan .
made a pioneering contribution to understanding the value of womenAos happiness.
Despite these developments, academic research on the happiness of single women in Vietnam remains limited.
Most existing studies have focused on describing the realities of single motherhood, examining issues related to childrearing and social adaptation in single-parent families, the social position of single women in contemporary society, or the livelihoods of working single mothers in industrial zones.
While these studies contribute valuable insights into the socio-economic conditions of single women, they often overlook the subjective dimensions of happiness, emotional well-being, and self-perception that shape womenAos lived experiences.
According to the prevailing notion of happiness among American women in the early 20th century, happiness meant fulfilling the role of the Aumodern housewife,Ay which encompassed thirteen functions: wife, lover, mother, nurse, consumer, cook, driver, interior decorator, childcare provider, repairer, furniture restorer, nutritionist, and educator.
Women appeared to have no professional ambitions.
Their idea of happiness was to get married and have four children.
Statisticians were astonished by the sharp rise in birth rates, instead of having two children, women were now having four, five, or even six.
Women who had once aspired to careers now turned their children into their career (Friedan, 2.
Their only dream was to become the perfect wife and mother.
their greatest ambition was to have five children and a beautiful home.
their sole struggle was to find and keep a They wanted men to make the important decisions.
They took pride in their role as women and felt proud to fill in the census blank with the phrase: AuOccupation:
Housewife.
Ay The question arises: when single women think within the dominant social framework of happiness, do they hold their own conception of happiness? What does happiness mean to them personally? A mother of four, who dropped out of college at 19, reflected: AuI have tried everything that women are supposed to enjoy - having hobbies, gardening, pickling, canning, socializing with neighbors, joining committees, hosting tea International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram parties for the PTAA but I was desperate.
I began to feel that I had no personality.
I was merely the one who served food, dressed the children, made the beds, someone people called only when they needed something.
But who am I, really?Ay (Betty Friedan, 2.
Clearly, mid-20th-century American women were AutrappedAy between societyAos perception of the Auhappy American housewifeAy and their own inner conception of happiness.
The issue raised in Betty FriedanAos work illustrates that happiness is a category not easily subjected to rational or quantitative scientific analysis.
Science has long struggled to capture the complex variability of this phenomenon.
It is difficult to define what happiness truly is, and even more difficult to quantify it through precise scientific analysis.
Yet, should the sciences, especially the empirical and exact sciences, not help humanity understand happiness more clearly? This question, though met with little enthusiasm from philosophers and theologians, has inspired psychologists, social scientists, and even mathematicians to persistently study and experiment with the subject despite repeated setbacks (Quy, 2.
The point, however, is that the happiness of single women, no matter how complex, cannot be separated from the social context and the individual characteristics of the women themselves.
Therefore, the happiness of single women is not an abstract With an appropriate scientific approach, it can indeed be explored and measured in specific and meaningful ways.
METHODOLOGY
This study employs a qualitative research approach grounded in interpretive sociology, focusing on understanding the lived experiences and subjective constructions of happiness among single women in Vietnam.
The choice of a qualitative design was informed by the nature of the research problemAihappiness as a deeply personal, contextdependent, and culturally embedded phenomenon that cannot be adequately captured through quantitative indicators alone.
The research was conducted between April and August 2025 and relied primarily on in-depth, semi-structured interviews as the key data collection method.
A total of 15 participants were interviewed, including divorced women, never-married mothers, and single women without children.
The participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling, ensuring diversity in age .
anging from 30 to 45 years ol.
, occupation Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025 Bui Thi Huong Tram .
eachers, office staff, entrepreneurs, factory workers, community leader.
, and residential location .
rban Hanoi and surrounding province.
Each interview lasted approximately 60 to 90 minutes and was conducted either in person or via online communication platforms, depending on participantsAo convenience and privacy needs.
The interviews were guided by an open-ended questionnaire that explored major themes such as:
Conceptions and sources of happiness in single womenAos daily lives.
Economic independence and the material conditions of happiness.
Emotional well-being, social stigma, and cultural negotiation.
Parenting responsibilities and the dual role of caregiving and breadwinning.
Strategies for self-care, resilience, and life satisfaction.
The interviews reveal rich and diverse narratives of happiness among single For instance, some participants viewed financial independence as a necessary condition for happiness, emphasizing that Aumoney ensures both basic needs and personal Ay Others linked happiness to self-fulfillment, autonomy, and emotional stability, describing the journey of becoming a single mother as Aua gift that teaches women strength and self-love.
Ay Participants also reflected on social stigma and gendered expectations, acknowledging that Ausociety still looks at single mothers with pity or suspicion,Ay yet asserting that Aureal happiness comes from confidence and optimism, not from conforming to traditional norms.
Ay All interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis following Braun and ClarkeAos .
The coding process identified recurring patterns and emergent themes reflecting both the challenges and empowering dimensions of single womenAos lives.
Four major themes were distilled:
Autonomy and self-realization Ae happiness as independence and self-determination.
Economic competence and financial security Ae money as a tool of empowerment rather than materialism.
Social stigma and cultural resistance Ae negotiating societal judgments and gender International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram .
Emotional resilience and self-care Ae redefining happiness through inner strength, optimism, and community connection.
Ethical principles were strictly observed throughout the research process.
Participants were informed about the studyAos objectives, provided written consent, and assured of confidentiality and anonymity.
Codes rather than names were used in all transcripts and citations.
RESULTS
The Current Situation of Single WomenAos Happiness According to the 2019 Population and Housing Census, as of April 1, 2019.
Vietnam had 28.
4 million women aged 10 to 49.
Among them, 6.
6 million, or 23.
4 percent, were between the ages of 10 and 19.
Notably, 6.
2 percent of women in this youngest reproductive age group who had given birth within the previous 12 months reported that they had never been married (GSO, 2.
Although this proportion remains modest, it nevertheless reflects a gradual shift in family and reproductive patterns in Vietnam, suggesting the increasing visibility of non-traditional family forms such as unmarried motherhood and single-parent households.
This demographic change signals an ongoing transformation in social norms, gender relations, and attitudes toward marriage and family The rate of childbirth among never-married women offers a valuable demographic indicator of these transformations.
It provides not only a lens through which to understand fertility change but also an empirical basis for developing family and population policies, including those aligned with the National Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021Ae 2030 and Vision 2045.
According to data from the General Statistics Office and UNFPA .
, the total fertility rate (TFR) among unmarried women in rural areas is approximately twice that of urban areas .
15 compared with 0.
The highest TFR is observed in the Northern Midland and Mountainous Region .
, followed by the North Central and Central Coastal Region .
, while the lowest rates are found in the Southeast .
and the Mekong River Delta .
These regional variations indicate that unmarried motherhood is more prevalent in economically disadvantaged areas, where traditional norms coexist with limited access to reproductive health education and services.
Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025 Bui Thi Huong Tram At the same time, transformations in womenAos social positions and gender roles have created new possibilities for self-fulfillment.
Women are no longer confined to household labor but actively participate in public, professional, and economic spheres.
Increasingly, women with stable incomes and education levels express reluctance to depend financially or emotionally on a husband, choosing instead to pursue single motherhood or independent living.
Many of these women emphasize that they are able to provide a stable and adequate life for their children without relying on a spouse, viewing this lifestyle as a way to affirm personal autonomy and gender equality in a rapidly modernizing society (Nguyen, 2.
However, the in-depth interviews conducted for this study reveal that happiness among single women is a multidimensional and contextually negotiated experience.
For many, happiness is no longer confined to traditional family models or societal expectations but is redefined through self-realization, independence, and resilience.
A single-mother community leader with seven years of experience in a local WomenAos Union remarked: AuBecoming a single mother means carrying heavier responsibilities, but perhaps it is also a gift Ai a way to discover that happiness lies in nurturing your child and yourself, in becoming strong enough to stand on your ownAy (Interviewee.
WomenAos Union office.
Similarly, another participant, a 40-year-old divorced office worker, reflected: AuI used to think happiness meant devotion to others, but I learned that forgetting yourself for your husband and children does not make you happy.
Happiness begins when you reconnect with yourself and learn to love who you areAy (Interviewee, female, 40, divorce.
Many participants expressed a sense of empowerment and pride in their new They reported that singlehood enabled them to grow stronger, more competent, and more self-assured.
As one woman explained: AuBeing a single mother made me realize I am capable, beautiful, and independent.
Happiness comes when I can look forward to the future with confidence and raise my child optimistically despite the difficultiesAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 36, sales staff.
Living standards and happiness of single women Throughout history, most moral and social theories have maintained that money bears little or no causal relationship to happiness.
However, scholars have continued to investigate this relationship, yielding diverse and sometimes conflicting findings.
International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram Firebaugh and Tach .
explored this issue and concluded that happiness increases with wealth but only when individuals perceive that they earn more than those around them.
Diener ( 1.
argued that it is inaccurate to say happiness is unrelated to money, though the relationship between the two is complex.
The notion that happiness correlates with financial prosperity remains widely accepted.
Indeed, wealthier individuals consistently report higher levels of life satisfaction than poorer ones, this is an observable pattern in both rich and poor countries.
The results revealed that life satisfaction increased after the win compared to two years before, and this increase was proportional to the prize amount: the larger the prize, the greater the reported satisfaction (Quy, 2.
Research conducted in Latin America also demonstrates that income inequality exerts a negative impact on the happiness of the poor but a positive one on the wealthy.
regions with pronounced inequality and weak institutional or labor market effectiveness, disparities tend to reflect persistent privilege or disadvantage rather than social mobility or Under conditions of deprivation and marginalization, poverty and powerlessness rarely generate happiness (Mishra et al.
, 2.
Frey and Stutzer .
found a different pattern when studying the relationship between household income and happiness.
Their findings indicated that families earning over 90,000 USD per year reported twice the level of happiness as those earning below 20,000 USD, yet there was no significant difference in happiness between those earning above 90,000 USD and those earning between 50,000 and 90,000 USD.
Kahneman concluded that the relationship between income and happiness is weak, and the belief that Aumoney equals happinessAy lacks firm empirical basis.
It is no coincidence, he noted, that philosophers have long cautioned against using money as a measure of happiness.
Similarly, according to Kahneman, many happiness economists argue that the poor can still experience happiness, while the rich are not necessarily happier.
likewise, a wealthy nation is not inherently happier than a less affluent one.
Because the poor have fewer desires, they may find satisfaction more easily, achieving happiness once their basic needs are met.
For the poor, escaping poverty is happiness.
for the rich, happiness may be threatened by fears of declining living standards.
While most national-level studies indicate that wealthy individuals tend to be happier than poorer ones, cross-national and longitudinal studies have revealed minimal correlation between increases in per capita income and overall happiness (Fuentes et al.
Volume 3.
Issue 3, 2025 Bui Thi Huong Tram Generally, residents of wealthier countries are happier, but happiness appears to rise with income only up to a certain point, beyond which it plateaus.
Even among poorer nations, the relationship between average income and average happiness remains The majority of interviewees emphasized the central role of economic independence in ensuring both stability and happiness.
Many argued that financial capacity not only meets basic needs but also provides emotional security and time for self-care.
39-year-old entrepreneur stated: AuMoney helps me buy time for myself.
I can hire domestic help or delivery services and use that time for work or self-development.
ItAos an effective way to invest in my happinessAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 39, business owne.
Similarly, a preschool teacher who founded a support group for single mothers in Hanoi noted: AuPeople say money doesnAot bring happiness, but without it, happiness is impossible.
Money secures the basics of life and gives women freedom to live the way they wantAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 42, teacher, divorce.
Several respondents, particularly working-class mothers, shared that despite financial stress, they find happiness in simple achievements: AuSometimes my childAos laughter or a quiet dinner together makes me forget all exhaustion.
Happiness is being able to pay the bills and see your child healthyAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 33, factory worke.
These findings affirm that, while material well-being is not the sole determinant of happiness, economic self-sufficiency functions as both a foundation and a symbol of empowerment for single women in contemporary Vietnam.
Emotional Resilience and Social Perception The interviews also reveal a recurring theme of emotional strength and resilience.
Despite social prejudice, many participants described a strong capacity to overcome loneliness, social stigma, and moral judgment.
A participant shared: AuIn my hometown, people looked at me with pity, some even whispered that I was a bad woman.
My parents said nothing, but their silence hurt the mostAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 40, garment worker.
Nam Din.
Other women reported discriminatory attitudes in the workplace: AuMy former boss told me that single women should Aoknow their placeAo.
I quit immediately.
Now I work as a freelancer Ai I earn less but I am much freer and happierAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 38, consultant, divorce.
International Journal of Humanities.
Education, and Social Sciences Bui Thi Huong Tram In contrast, some participants expressed a confident redefinition of happiness, rejecting the victim narrative often portrayed in the media.
One participant explained:
AuSingle mothers on TV are always crying, but thatAos not real life.
Many of us are happy.
I find joy in simple things Ai cooking, arranging flowers, spending time with my child.
You must be happy yourself for your child to be happy tooAy (INTERVIEWEE, female, 35, designer, divorce.
This finding underscores that happiness for single women is often tied to self-acceptance and emotional self-sufficiency, rather than external validation.
DISCUSSION