I hate to admit it but Edith Wharton. I was assigned her by a teacher I hated for a book report. I spent like 5 months researching her and the basis of my research was about her battle with not being wed to someone she loved. I live in the same state she did but have never been to her home. Got to to that this summer.
But then about 2000 I decided to read her book called "house of mirth" and man, what an indictment of how the world treats women who do not want to marry. Her point was made in like 1914 and still in 2014 it is exactly the same.
In the story her character is beautiful and even really likes one guy but she is just not sure she wants to be wed. As she blows it off for years... finally she is an old maid. No one wants to marry her but cruel jerks. She has to struggle to really work and lives a poor life. Because she is working so hard and has no money she can't keep up her looks. Finally she realizes the rest of her life will just be one long struggle and decides to kill herself.
It is the derision that society has for any woman (men too but) rejecting marriage or extroversion or rejecting what society values. Your not allowed to be independent of society... you better buckle down and suffer like the rest of us or else.
Not going to kill myself but, not a lot has changed. Though women can work more now, than in that time, when the economy is bad, not so much.