But in the Victorian era, there was immense pressure for women to tie the knot.
Those who didn't were described as 'Spinsters' and were the subject of cruel jokes.
But a popular weekly magazine from the 1880s shows that unmarried women were perfectly capable of fighting back.
Comments sent in by single women who had been invited in a competition to explain, 'Why I am a Spinster' showed the acerbic wit of respondents.
Historian Dr Bob Nicholson found the jokes while studying an 1889 edition of Tit- Bits Magazine, which continued to be published until 1984.
Dr Nicholson told MailOnline: 'I love some of the responses to this competition — they turn the stereotype of the Victorian spinster on its head and reveal some of the reasons why some Victorian women might have preferred to remain single.