Can A Single Woman Wear A Diamond Ring?

A gorgeous diamond ring that's within your budget may be calling your name, but if you're a single woman, can you actually wear it, even though it isn't an engagement or wedding ring? Yes, you can, especially when you know why diamonds became associated with marriage in the first place. (Hint: It was a mix of celebrity worship and clever advertising.) However, anyone planning to buy and wear a diamond ring when single needs to keep a couple of caveats in mind.

The History of Diamond Rings

The first known diamond engagement ring was created in the 15th century when an Austrian archduke had a jeweler create a diamond engagement ring. Diamonds really became the engagement gemstone in the 1940s when diamond company De Beers started a marketing blitz to pump up sales. In 1948, they produced the classic slogan, "A diamond is forever," which linked the stone to the supposed eternal nature of love and marriage. Celebrity ad campaigns helped cement that link in people's minds.

How Diamond Rings Are Viewed Today

But rules surrounding engagement and diamond rings have loosened up in the past couple of decades. It's now common to see other gems in rings and even to have "rings" tattooed onto fingers, but no one really questions the lack of a diamond in these cases as long as the ring (or tattoo) is on the ring finger. And there are even diamond divorce rings that women can buy to replace their engagement and wedding rings. Clearly, just wearing a diamond on a random finger is not a signal that you're not single.

If you want to avoid misunderstandings, however, definitely wear the ring on a different finger (and even the other hand).

Single Women Wearing Diamond Rings

A single woman wearing a diamond ring really isn't controversial in and of itself. Plenty of non-engagement rings have diamonds ranging from solitaires to waves of tiny diamonds in a pave pattern to cocktail rings with sparkles and flashy gems galore, and wearing these won't mark you as not-single unless you wear one on your ring finger. And it's really more the finger than the gemstone that's the issue.

Diamond Ring Styles

Some styles of diamond ring are still inextricably linked to engagements in people's minds, especially if the ring is worn on the ring finger. The prominent solitaire diamond, for example, is a classic engagement ring style. Single women can still wear solitaires, but this is one ring style that you definitely don't want to place on your ring finger.

So, there's no reason for single women to avoid diamond rings. Go get that glittery jewelry and enjoy wearing it!