[dsajames]

Do you find anything consistent among these women who eat alone? Age, how busy/rushed they appear, how tough they appear, etc? Would you guess they are single with few friends in the area?

Perhaps they mostly just have more confidence in going out alone.

[DoreenMichele]

The pattern I noticed was that my behavior of eating alone in public as a woman was, in fact, unusual as other people seemed to think. I haven't noticed enough other women eating alone to notice any patterns concerning characteristics of women who eat alone. It really seems rather rare and my interest in the phenomenon was limited in scope to wondering why it got such weird reactions from other people and paying enough attention to verify that, yea, verily, it's genuinely unusual. People aren't merely making that part up.

I didn't pay attention beyond that. It's not some formal study with records, etc.