EN
Single women were 'invisible' at the beginning of the 21st century. However, now they are easily noticeable. The perception of a single woman has altered together with the change of the woman's position in a society. Nowadays the stereotype of a spinster has transformed into an image of an independent single woman. The article focuses on the transformation of the social perception of unmarried women. Their presentation was made in the context of women emancipation and changes which took place within the traditional 'gender contract'. They were considered to be the consequence of the process of transforming societies from the traditional into postmodernist ones and they connected with the change of mentality from the collective towards more individualistic. It has been as well assumed that economic factors are vital for the perception of single women. Spinsterhood was expressed as a certain social construction, conventional category, formed discursively in the course of social processes accompanying the current cultural tendencies.