Being a bachelor farmer in old-time, and modern Phoenix

Lately I've been pondering how much society defines women by the family around them. We hardly even notice when a newspaper article describes a woman as a mother of three even if it has nothing to do with the reason for the article, for instance if she just won the Nobel Peace Prize, or something. And in my conversations with women who are, ahem, of age, I find that they see themselves as grandmothers, or widows - although the old-fashioned term of describing yourself as, for example, "Widow Jenkins" has gone away. And all of this made me wonder if it applies to men, and the only example I could think of is a bachelor farmer.

I've seen the term "bachelor farmer" many times, and although it's not very scientific, my test is if something just sounds weird to me, and bachelor farmer doesn't. It just seems perfectly natural for a farmer to have a wife, and of course children to help with the chores. There's no reason that an unmarried man couldn't have a farm, with good hired hands, of course. It seems to be just a mental bias that we have, and now I'm wondering if there is anything else that commonly defines a man that way.

Of course, there's grandpa, but that's usually used in a derisive way, to indicate that a man is old and feeble. I've rarely seen the word widower, although it happens, but it's not something that I can imagine hearing in old-time Phoenix as a man bellies up to bar, and is greeted by being called "the Widower Jenkins"!

The only time my marital status was noted, to my recollection, is when I bought my house and the form described me as "a single man". Most houses are purchased by couples, so being a bachelor seemed unusual, at least to the mortgage company. I've never been described as a "bachelor web designer", or anything like that, and am inclined to think that it just sounds weird.

Thank you for the encouragement! If you want to see daily pics of my adventures on my recumbent trike in suburban Phoenix (just for fun, of course!) you can follow me on buymeacoffee.com/bradhall, and you can buy me a coffee if you'd like to!