Decline Of Marriage In America Essay
The Decline of Marriage in America
Emma Zvanovec
Writing Studies 1301
Mrs. DeValk
13 February 2014
Emma Zvanovec
Mrs. DeValk
Writing Studies 1301
9 January 2013
The Decline of Marriage in America
Try to imagine a world where people don’t get married. Marriage doesn’t exist and people don’t live in partnerships. They just reproduce and live their own lives as they desire without depending or being held back by someone else. Soon, the concept may not be so foreign; Americans are slowly growing to favor this concept. The ideal American lifestyle follows a certain outline-- you go to school and get good grades, you go to college and get a degree that will help you earn a lot of money, and you’ll get married and start a family. If you follow these steps correctly, you have the recipe for the perfect life. But, what if one of those elements were removed? What if marriage was no longer part of the equation and the key to being happy was being single?
Marriage is a legal and religious institution that has been around for thousands of years. It’s something that’s been changed and redesigned and repurposed over the years, but it’s always been around. From a theological perspective, it’s a union formed by God, but to early humans it was a union made for power, …show more content…
money, and any other reason but love. In an article from Psychology Today, the “Marriage, a History” article states that in the Victorian Era, adultery was common because of loveless marriages. The real change came about in the 1920s in America when the dating trend began. By the 1950s, the nuclear family exploded and became the new norm. To follow the explosion of nuclear families, the divorce rate exploded in the 1970s. Women became more independent, and they have been ever since. Today the marriage rate remains low. Statistics show that the marriage rate is declining and many believe that it will continue to decline into the future.
People that choose the unmarried life, or “singles,” are a growing population in the country and will soon create a new lifestyle desired by many young people coming of age. The U.S. Census bureau in 1970 shows that the percent of males never married ages 20-24 years was 35.8% and ages 40-44 was 4.9%. In 2010 the percent of males never married ages 20-24 was 88.7% and ages 40-44 was 20.4%. For women, the numbers show the same results. Overall, the marriage rate has fallen 40.4% since 1970 and the divorce rate doubled (McManus). The reasons are many and vary, but marriage isn’t the institution that it once was. When polled, 40% of Americans said that marriage already is or is becoming obsolete (Hallett).
The media thrives on sexuality, and marriage cramps the glamorous single lifestyle. Many TV shows show wealthy, single people that go out frequently and enjoy pursuing others, not actually committing and settling down to get married and start a family. Although marriage is becoming less sexy, cohabitation is becoming more. Since 1960, fifteen times more households have unmarried people living together, and half of these households have children (Gabel). The type of person that cohabitates is a specific type. For example, they’re more likely to be liberal, less religious, and children of divorce. People in these types of relationships live and act like married people, so to cohabitors, it feels like a real marriage. However, no initial lifelong commitment occurs, so there’s no feeling of security or permanence (McManus). Successful cohabitation leads people to believe that marriage is unnecessary, and cohabitation’s ending badly can end up turning an individual away from marriage.
Society has progressed since the 1970s when the marriage decline began. Prior to that, marriage was an ideal that people wanted for themselves; they wanted a simple and secure life. When the tides turned and the divorce rate started going up, people began looking for a trendy single lifestyle. After all, single people spend 33% more on themselves than married people. (Popcorn) Singles can afford to be selfish and spend money on themselves, and they can afford to go out more and show off their nice things. Another difference in society that has promoted a single lifestyle is instability. Today’s working world is global and always moving. People don’t work at the same company for their whole lives as they once did, and frequent layoffs cause stress. When people feel stressed at their job they often take it out on their partner. People that have job and financial instability are less likely to get married and more likely to get divorced (Gabel). Society is an ever changing entity, and the world is a much different place now than 1960.
People attribute China’s one-child rule to a change in marriage through change in the general population. When China instituted the one-child policy, they inadvertently caused a mass killing of unborn baby girls. In 2012, the census reported 40 million more Chinese men than women. In 2020, it’s predicted that 30 million men of marriageable age will be unable to find a wife. Researchers believe that the one-child rule and resulting “gendercide” is the cause. They observed the birth ratio in Tibet, a region of China without the one child-rule. The results were a normal ratio (All Girls Allowed). Although the population imbalance accounts for men being single in China, it really doesn’t really contribute to the trend of the single lifestyle. Countries and regions with population imbalance don’t have single people by choice as the trend would indicate, but single because that’s their only option. In addition, people don’t look at them as “cool” or “hip.”
In earlier times, possibly just 60 years ago, men and women had very different roles in their families. Men were the breadwinners and took care of the family financially, while women usually worked in the home and raised the children. However, a revolution occurred among women and gender roles changed. The modern woman is seen as independent and doesn’t need anybody-- especially not a husband. The feminist movement is a huge contributor to the decline of marriage in America. When women began going to college and focusing on their careers, men were less of a necessity; the traditional family structure became unnecessary. Another source connected birth control to the decline in marriage. Statistics show that women who use birth control before they turn 21 earn 8% higher wages, tend to marry higher earning men, and are more likely to attend and graduate from college. This is because women who use birth control have more confidence and power over their fertility. They can also plan their families better to fit their careers. Women that wait one extra year into their career to become a mother end up earning 9% more (Gabel). However, it’s not only women. Men too prefer to be financially stable before they get married. In the end, modern citizens are a different type of people than their parents; they tend to hold different values and lead different lives. The purpose of marriage differs from marriage 10 years, 50 years, 100 years, or even 1,000 years ago, and in these days it doesn’t serve the same purpose.
The decline of marriage in America will not leave society untouched.
The way that children are raised, for better or for worse, will change. The government will also feel an impact when it comes to taxes and a lack of marriages, because it’s more difficult for unmarried people to obtain wealth. When Americans have less wealth than they had before, it makes us a poorer country (Hallett). However, it may also cause people to be happier. More people will be living without marital stresses, and they will have the ability to be free to do the things that they want without someone restricting them. There will be many changes from the change in marriage, both positive and
negative.
In some countries in Europe the cohabitation rates are even higher than America and the marriage rates are even lower. Their government doesn’t offer as many benefits to married people as America. There’s also less cultural taboos there surrounding marriage (Gabel). So will America move in Europe’s direction? Maybe not. Not every group of Americans has a declining marriage rate. People that graduate college are less likely to get a divorce and more likely to have a long, happy marriage. Also, of the 40% of people from the Pew Research Institute that said that marriage is becoming obsolete, 50% of them said that they still wanted to be married. Marriage will always be around even if it’s nothing more than a religious ceremony. It’s a sacred part of many religions, but if the trend of declining marriage continues, we could live in a world where marriage disappears as a legal institution. People may just get married in a church and see themselves as a married couple through only their religion’s perspective. However, this unlikely concept denies the fact that people, religious or not, will continue to be interested in marriage.
Marriage, like everything today, is becoming a science and a product. Some people marry more than others and use it for different reasons. When people want to buy a TV, they research it. They look for prices, brand, and quality to make sure that they’re getting the best product for their money. Marriage is becoming more or less the same. People don’t want to take a risk and jump into the unknown with another. There’s even a test that people can take to predict if they’ll get a divorce with 80% accuracy, and 10-15% of the people that take the test end up deciding not to get married. (McManus) So how is marriage going to be saved? In all likeliness, it won’t be unless society has a change of heart. With the trend of independence in individuals, there may follow a trend of codependency as there was in the 1920s through the 1960s. (Psychology Today) As for the future of marriage, only time will tell.
Marriage Research: An Annotated Bibliography
"17 States with Legal Gay Marriage and 33 States with Same-Sex Marriage Bans - Gay- Marriage-ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. ProCon, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
This article was published by ProCon.org, a non-profit that writes popular articles. They have sources to back up their information. The sources that they used for each states information was the state’s main newspaper. They discussed in this article the states the 17 states that allow gay marriage and the 33 states that do not. It also showed how each state makes/ made the choice to or to not have gay marriage. It was a good source but I did not use it in my paper.
Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Perf. Dawn Brancheau, Suzanne Allee, and Jeff Andrews. CNN Films, 2013. TV Movie.
Blackfish is a documentary made by CNN about orca whales and how captivity can affect them. In the film they interview former trainers of Sea World, people that capture orca whales when they’re babies, and general experts on them. Throughout the film they’re trying to make a point that captivity is a terrible thing for whales and can cause aggression against humans. They show trainers being attacked while in the water with the whales and they talk about the ones that have died over the years.
CNN is a reputable news stations and source. Everyone that they interview had either first-hand worked with the whales or seen how they behaved, or they were highly educated on the subject of the whales. However, it was one-sided. It didn’t show how captivity could possibly help whales and it defame Sea World. But, Sea World had no official response to the film, which could potentially mean that their lack of proper care and harmful treatment of the whales was “exposed”.
Butterworth, Trevor. "What 's Behind The US Decline In Marriage? Pragmatism." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 June 2013. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
This was an article that was in Forbes magazine and was later published online. The article discussed marriage declining in America. The Article believes that a key part of the problem is the recession and marriage is causing poverty. It also discusses all of the money that the government has put into educating low income people about the merits of marriage.
I did not end up using this source because it did not relate to the main points of my paper. However, their sources were credible and Forbes itself is a credible source. The author is also a regular contributor who specializes on reason, risk, and regulation.
Gabel, Aja. "The Marriage Crisis." The University of Virginia Magazine. U. Va. Alumni Association, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
“The Marriage Crisis” is an article from the University of Virginia Magazine. It’s about the trend of marriage rates going down. It was a scholarly article and had good sources cited. The magazine itself is published by the UVA Alumni Association.
The article states that the first time marriage age has gone up six years since 1960, and only 20% of Americans get married under 30. 15 times more people cohabitate today than they did in the 1960s, and over half of these households have children.
The author believes a main reason that marriage has declined is because of the women’s liberation movement of the 60s and 70s. Women began going to college and focusing on their careers, and they didn’t need nor want men and families holding them back. Marriage used to be a business like relationship of co dependency, but now it’s for love.
They also connect birth control to women getting married. Women that use birth control before they’re 21 have 8% higher wages than their counterparts and ended up marrying higher earning men. The cause is that women were able to wait longer to become mothers and they had control and confidence about their fertility. Women that use birth control are more likely to attend and graduate college. They plan their careers and women that wait even one year to be a mother end up earning 9% more.
Another reason is job instability. People tend to not stay at a job as long as they have in the past, and jobs are global and mobile. It’s proven that when people have greater job instability, they’re more anxious and they take it out on their spouses. It’s proven that people with job and financial instability are less likely to get married and more likely to get a divorce.
The divorce rate peaked in the 1980s and since then has fallen, but it’s still three times higher than the 1960s at 50.
College educated people are much less likely to get a divorce and more likely to have a long, happy marriage.
In some countries in Europe the marriage rates are lower than the United States and the cohabitation rates are higher. This is because there there are no government benefits to marriage there and less cultural taboos surrounding cohabitation.
Of the 40% of people from the Pew Research Insitute that said that marriage is becoming obsolete, 50% said they still wanted to be married.
"Gender Imbalance in China | All Girls Allowed." Gender Imbalance in China | All Girls Allowed. All Girls Allowed, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
This article was from a nonprofit website that works for the cause of ending the gender imbalance in China. This website is more popular than scholarly. However, on their information page everything is cited with credible sources as well.
In 2012 there were 18 million more boys under the age of 15 in China than girls. Total, the Chinese government estimated that there were 40 million more males than there were females. By 2020 it’s predicted that there will be 30 million men of marriageable age that will not be able to find a wife due to the gender imbalance. In 2005, 1.1 million more boys were born than girls.
They feel that the one child rule is the cause of this imbalance. They researched Tibet where the rule does not apply and they found a normal sex ratio.
In 2005 men were already having trouble finding a wife, only 88% of men marriageable age were married and 99% of women were. 100 million girls have been aborted and the majority of them are from China.
Hallett, Stephanie. "Marriage Rate In America Drops Drastically." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
The Huffington article is about statistics showing proof that marriage is indeed declining in America, and expresses some of the potential reasons. Easybib.com says that the Huffington Post is credible and they show their sources at the end of their article.
They say that when the last census was taken in 2010, barely half of the American adult (over 18) population was married. From 2009 to 2010 the percentage of marriages dropped by 5. It said that Americans not only get married less but later too.
The article supports the theory that a reason for the decline of marriage may be that it’s now more socially acceptable to not be married but do things that married people do, like live together and have children. A reason for late marriage is that people just want to be stable before they get married.
This matters because its a change to our society. It will mean a lot to our government in terms of taxes. It’s also more difficult for unmarried people to build wealth which could make for a poorer country. In a survey 40% of people said that marriage is or is becoming obsolete.
"Marriage, a History." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 21 July 2008. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
This was an article from Psychology Today about marriage through history and how it’s changed. It discussed different ancient civilizations and their reasons for marriage. It goes throughout history and ends in modern times.
Marriage, a History says that in the past marriage was more a matter of money, power, and survival than love. Love was not a good enough reason to be married to someone. During Enlightenment and Victorian eras, adultery was common because of this.
By the 1800’s the views of women changed in the eyes of men. It began with Queen Victoria wearing a virginal white to her wedding and before women had been thought of lustier, but now they were considered pure and clear. This made it much easier for men to have sex with prostitutes than their wives. In the 1920s America dating began and it was all the craze. With this, by the 1950s the nuclear family exploded and that was the world standard. But, in the 1970s women decided that they wanted more independence. And today, people still believe in the perfect lovely wedding but marriage rates are low.
The article was mostly popular in nature and an easy read. However, Psychology Today is a credible source and they had good information on the topic. Their facts and sources are also credible. The article came from psychologists research and perspective.
McManus, Michael., McManus, Harriet.. "How to create an America that saves marriages." Journal of Psychology and Theology 3(2003):196. eLibrary. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
This was a reliable source. It was an article that came from the journal of Psychology and Theology. I found it on eLibrary. It was scholarly vs. popular. It gave information about American marriages and reasons why people don’t want to get married.
The article says that there’s a test called FOCUS which is more or less a compatibility inventory. It can predict a divorce with 80% accuracy. 10-15% of people that take it end up deciding not to marry.
The divorce rate of people that have counseling prior to getting married and talk thorough inventory issues is less than 5%. The marriage rate has plummeted 40.4% since 1970. The article discusses how premarital cohabitation actually leads to a worse marriage. Marriages preceded by living together usually lead to low commitment in a marriage and even lower happiness.
There are many facts and statistics surrounding cohabiting people. 60% of cohabiting women are high school dropouts and only 37% graduate from college. They’re more likely to be liberals, less religious, and children of divorce. They learn from it that living together doesn’t mean permanence so once marriage comes around nothing really changes.
Babies born out of wedlock have increased since cohabitation has increased. 225,000 babies were born out of wedlock in 1960 compared to 1,346,000 in 2000. 40% of children will live with a cohabiting parent.
Miller, Lisa. "Premium Login." What 's Next. What?s Next?, 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. .
The writing came from a blogger who talked about several trends in society. I just read the section about how people are always wanting to speed everything up, beginning with their technology and how it’s seeping into the rest of their lives.
It was more of an opinion piece than anything but it gave a good idea and idea for further research. They also cited any sources that they used to write their pieces.
Park, Kathy. "WJLA." WJLA. Allbritton Communications Company, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
This article came from a news website based in Washington. It was about how plastic surgery is growing in society. It specifically talks about how different cultures have different preferences towards different surgeries.
It’s a reputable source but it doesn’t go in depth about the topic. It basically gave a surface analysis of trends and statistics and would maybe provoke further research and interest.
"Percent Never Married, 1970–2010." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2011. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
This source was just a chart found on Infoplease.com. Infoplease is a credible website and they got their statistics from the US Census Bureau. The data on the table was specific to the United States.
Popcorn, Faith. "Singlarity." Editorial. Faith Popcorn 's Brain Reserve. Faith Popcorn 's Brainreserve, 2013. Article. 12 Dec. 2013. .
Singlarity is a web article about the trend of people wanting to put off or opt out of marriage. She talks about how nuclear families are decreasing in popularity (in the last decade single family households have increased by 30% worldwide) and the US will be the leader by 2020 with 36.3 million.
The article discusses how the standard is changing. In 1970 80% of the population thought someone that wanted to stay single their whole life was sick, yet 50% of marriages end in divorce. She claims that traditional marriage won’t be the norm nor ideal. Reasons she gives are gender barriers being broken, tax laws making marriage more expensive, and democratization of education.
It’s becoming trendy to be single in today’s world. Single people are the trendsetters; they decide what’s cool in art, food, music, etc. They can also indulge and spend more money and feel less guilty about it. Singles spend 33% more on themselves than married people with children.
The article claims children of single people are also better prepared for the world. They say children of single parents are better at handling conflict, responsibility, and disappointment. They also have a clearer set of life priorities. When parents are free of marital stresses their children grow up in a more ideal environment.
Women are the main focus of the single movement. The single life is actually better suited for women because they’re more self nurturing and can better take care of themselves. In 1979 only 18% of women under 50 were unmarried. Today 51% of women under 50 are unmarried. Even exclusively female clubs are being established. Not for lesbian purposes, but for women to meet other women and make connections away from unwanted male attention. Single women even have a special voting power, they were the ones who helped Obama win in 2012, especially hispanic women. Single women are out earning men, buying more homes, and doing better in the stock market. By 2016, women will earn 64% of associates degrees, 60% of bachelor’s degrees, 63% of master’s degrees, and 56% of doctorates.
This article also believes that lifespan plays a part in a single lifestyle. Baby boomers who were married but now divorced generally have no desire to be married again. Also, fertility is changing so women will be able to have babies at a later age if they want them. People are going to go to lives-partners versus life partners, as in someone to have children and sex with, but not be married to.
The piece was a piece of opinion but had statistics and valid ideas. Faith Popcorn is a reputable website and I really enjoyed the source. It gave me the idea for my paper and it a highly thought provoking article. It wasn’t very scholarly, mostly popular.
Rauhala, Emily. "Who Needs Love When You Can Go Shopping?."Time.Com (2013): 1. Academic Search Premier. Article. 8 Jan. 2014.
“Who Needs Love When You Can Go Shopping?” was about how in China they have an “anti-valentine’s day” holiday called Singles Day. It’s celebrated on 11/11 so the numerals resemble trees with bare branches. It’s a day for single and unmarried people to go out with their single and unmarried friends.
Coinciding with singles day in 2013, the singles of China spent $5.7 billion in online shopping. The article also states that males outnumber females in China by 34 million.
The article was scholarly and was an excerpt from Time Magazine, found on EBSCO. It came from a good source but it was very short and went in depth about the day itself and shopping specifics.
Schmitz, Ashleigh. "Do 50% of Marriages Really End in Divorce?" Fox News Magazine. Fox, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
This was an online article that I used to find out just one fact, and that was that I wanted to know what the actual divorce rate in America was. The article said that the divorce rate is around 50%, but it’s decreasing... along with the marriage rate. Fox news is a credible source and they said they got some of their facts from the CDC which is also reliable.
Emma Zvanovec
Writing Studies 1301
Mrs. DeValk
13 February 2014
Emma Zvanovec
Mrs. DeValk
Writing Studies 1301
9 January 2013
The Decline of Marriage in America
Try to imagine a world where people don’t get married. Marriage doesn’t exist and people don’t live in partnerships. They just reproduce and live their own lives as they desire without depending or being held back by someone else. Soon, the concept may not be so foreign; Americans are slowly growing to favor this concept. The ideal American lifestyle follows a certain outline-- you go to school and get good grades, you go to college and get a degree that will help you earn a lot of money, and you’ll get married and start a family. If you follow these steps correctly, you have the recipe for the perfect life. But, what if one of those elements were removed? What if marriage was no longer part of the equation and the key to being happy was being single?
Marriage is a legal and religious institution that has been around for thousands of years. It’s something that’s been changed and redesigned and repurposed over the years, but it’s always been around. From a theological perspective, it’s a union formed by God, but to early humans it was a union made for power, …show more content…
money, and any other reason but love. In an article from Psychology Today, the “Marriage, a History” article states that in the Victorian Era, adultery was common because of loveless marriages. The real change came about in the 1920s in America when the dating trend began. By the 1950s, the nuclear family exploded and became the new norm. To follow the explosion of nuclear families, the divorce rate exploded in the 1970s. Women became more independent, and they have been ever since. Today the marriage rate remains low. Statistics show that the marriage rate is declining and many believe that it will continue to decline into the future.
People that choose the unmarried life, or “singles,” are a growing population in the country and will soon create a new lifestyle desired by many young people coming of age. The U.S. Census bureau in 1970 shows that the percent of males never married ages 20-24 years was 35.8% and ages 40-44 was 4.9%. In 2010 the percent of males never married ages 20-24 was 88.7% and ages 40-44 was 20.4%. For women, the numbers show the same results. Overall, the marriage rate has fallen 40.4% since 1970 and the divorce rate doubled (McManus). The reasons are many and vary, but marriage isn’t the institution that it once was. When polled, 40% of Americans said that marriage already is or is becoming obsolete (Hallett).
The media thrives on sexuality, and marriage cramps the glamorous single lifestyle. Many TV shows show wealthy, single people that go out frequently and enjoy pursuing others, not actually committing and settling down to get married and start a family. Although marriage is becoming less sexy, cohabitation is becoming more. Since 1960, fifteen times more households have unmarried people living together, and half of these households have children (Gabel). The type of person that cohabitates is a specific type. For example, they’re more likely to be liberal, less religious, and children of divorce. People in these types of relationships live and act like married people, so to cohabitors, it feels like a real marriage. However, no initial lifelong commitment occurs, so there’s no feeling of security or permanence (McManus). Successful cohabitation leads people to believe that marriage is unnecessary, and cohabitation’s ending badly can end up turning an individual away from marriage.
Society has progressed since the 1970s when the marriage decline began. Prior to that, marriage was an ideal that people wanted for themselves; they wanted a simple and secure life. When the tides turned and the divorce rate started going up, people began looking for a trendy single lifestyle. After all, single people spend 33% more on themselves than married people. (Popcorn) Singles can afford to be selfish and spend money on themselves, and they can afford to go out more and show off their nice things. Another difference in society that has promoted a single lifestyle is instability. Today’s working world is global and always moving. People don’t work at the same company for their whole lives as they once did, and frequent layoffs cause stress. When people feel stressed at their job they often take it out on their partner. People that have job and financial instability are less likely to get married and more likely to get divorced (Gabel). Society is an ever changing entity, and the world is a much different place now than 1960.
People attribute China’s one-child rule to a change in marriage through change in the general population. When China instituted the one-child policy, they inadvertently caused a mass killing of unborn baby girls. In 2012, the census reported 40 million more Chinese men than women. In 2020, it’s predicted that 30 million men of marriageable age will be unable to find a wife. Researchers believe that the one-child rule and resulting “gendercide” is the cause. They observed the birth ratio in Tibet, a region of China without the one child-rule. The results were a normal ratio (All Girls Allowed). Although the population imbalance accounts for men being single in China, it really doesn’t really contribute to the trend of the single lifestyle. Countries and regions with population imbalance don’t have single people by choice as the trend would indicate, but single because that’s their only option. In addition, people don’t look at them as “cool” or “hip.”
In earlier times, possibly just 60 years ago, men and women had very different roles in their families. Men were the breadwinners and took care of the family financially, while women usually worked in the home and raised the children. However, a revolution occurred among women and gender roles changed. The modern woman is seen as independent and doesn’t need anybody-- especially not a husband. The feminist movement is a huge contributor to the decline of marriage in America. When women began going to college and focusing on their careers, men were less of a necessity; the traditional family structure became unnecessary. Another source connected birth control to the decline in marriage. Statistics show that women who use birth control before they turn 21 earn 8% higher wages, tend to marry higher earning men, and are more likely to attend and graduate from college. This is because women who use birth control have more confidence and power over their fertility. They can also plan their families better to fit their careers. Women that wait one extra year into their career to become a mother end up earning 9% more (Gabel). However, it’s not only women. Men too prefer to be financially stable before they get married. In the end, modern citizens are a different type of people than their parents; they tend to hold different values and lead different lives. The purpose of marriage differs from marriage 10 years, 50 years, 100 years, or even 1,000 years ago, and in these days it doesn’t serve the same purpose.
The decline of marriage in America will not leave society untouched.
The way that children are raised, for better or for worse, will change. The government will also feel an impact when it comes to taxes and a lack of marriages, because it’s more difficult for unmarried people to obtain wealth. When Americans have less wealth than they had before, it makes us a poorer country (Hallett). However, it may also cause people to be happier. More people will be living without marital stresses, and they will have the ability to be free to do the things that they want without someone restricting them. There will be many changes from the change in marriage, both positive and
negative.
In some countries in Europe the cohabitation rates are even higher than America and the marriage rates are even lower. Their government doesn’t offer as many benefits to married people as America. There’s also less cultural taboos there surrounding marriage (Gabel). So will America move in Europe’s direction? Maybe not. Not every group of Americans has a declining marriage rate. People that graduate college are less likely to get a divorce and more likely to have a long, happy marriage. Also, of the 40% of people from the Pew Research Institute that said that marriage is becoming obsolete, 50% of them said that they still wanted to be married. Marriage will always be around even if it’s nothing more than a religious ceremony. It’s a sacred part of many religions, but if the trend of declining marriage continues, we could live in a world where marriage disappears as a legal institution. People may just get married in a church and see themselves as a married couple through only their religion’s perspective. However, this unlikely concept denies the fact that people, religious or not, will continue to be interested in marriage.
Marriage, like everything today, is becoming a science and a product. Some people marry more than others and use it for different reasons. When people want to buy a TV, they research it. They look for prices, brand, and quality to make sure that they’re getting the best product for their money. Marriage is becoming more or less the same. People don’t want to take a risk and jump into the unknown with another. There’s even a test that people can take to predict if they’ll get a divorce with 80% accuracy, and 10-15% of the people that take the test end up deciding not to get married. (McManus) So how is marriage going to be saved? In all likeliness, it won’t be unless society has a change of heart. With the trend of independence in individuals, there may follow a trend of codependency as there was in the 1920s through the 1960s. (Psychology Today) As for the future of marriage, only time will tell.
Marriage Research: An Annotated Bibliography
"17 States with Legal Gay Marriage and 33 States with Same-Sex Marriage Bans - Gay- Marriage-ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. ProCon, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.
This article was published by ProCon.org, a non-profit that writes popular articles. They have sources to back up their information. The sources that they used for each states information was the state’s main newspaper. They discussed in this article the states the 17 states that allow gay marriage and the 33 states that do not. It also showed how each state makes/ made the choice to or to not have gay marriage. It was a good source but I did not use it in my paper.
Blackfish. Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite. Perf. Dawn Brancheau, Suzanne Allee, and Jeff Andrews. CNN Films, 2013. TV Movie.
Blackfish is a documentary made by CNN about orca whales and how captivity can affect them. In the film they interview former trainers of Sea World, people that capture orca whales when they’re babies, and general experts on them. Throughout the film they’re trying to make a point that captivity is a terrible thing for whales and can cause aggression against humans. They show trainers being attacked while in the water with the whales and they talk about the ones that have died over the years.
CNN is a reputable news stations and source. Everyone that they interview had either first-hand worked with the whales or seen how they behaved, or they were highly educated on the subject of the whales. However, it was one-sided. It didn’t show how captivity could possibly help whales and it defame Sea World. But, Sea World had no official response to the film, which could potentially mean that their lack of proper care and harmful treatment of the whales was “exposed”.
Butterworth, Trevor. "What 's Behind The US Decline In Marriage? Pragmatism." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 June 2013. Web. 07 Feb. 2014.
This was an article that was in Forbes magazine and was later published online. The article discussed marriage declining in America. The Article believes that a key part of the problem is the recession and marriage is causing poverty. It also discusses all of the money that the government has put into educating low income people about the merits of marriage.
I did not end up using this source because it did not relate to the main points of my paper. However, their sources were credible and Forbes itself is a credible source. The author is also a regular contributor who specializes on reason, risk, and regulation.
Gabel, Aja. "The Marriage Crisis." The University of Virginia Magazine. U. Va. Alumni Association, n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.
“The Marriage Crisis” is an article from the University of Virginia Magazine. It’s about the trend of marriage rates going down. It was a scholarly article and had good sources cited. The magazine itself is published by the UVA Alumni Association.
The article states that the first time marriage age has gone up six years since 1960, and only 20% of Americans get married under 30. 15 times more people cohabitate today than they did in the 1960s, and over half of these households have children.
The author believes a main reason that marriage has declined is because of the women’s liberation movement of the 60s and 70s. Women began going to college and focusing on their careers, and they didn’t need nor want men and families holding them back. Marriage used to be a business like relationship of co dependency, but now it’s for love.
They also connect birth control to women getting married. Women that use birth control before they’re 21 have 8% higher wages than their counterparts and ended up marrying higher earning men. The cause is that women were able to wait longer to become mothers and they had control and confidence about their fertility. Women that use birth control are more likely to attend and graduate college. They plan their careers and women that wait even one year to be a mother end up earning 9% more.
Another reason is job instability. People tend to not stay at a job as long as they have in the past, and jobs are global and mobile. It’s proven that when people have greater job instability, they’re more anxious and they take it out on their spouses. It’s proven that people with job and financial instability are less likely to get married and more likely to get a divorce.
The divorce rate peaked in the 1980s and since then has fallen, but it’s still three times higher than the 1960s at 50.
College educated people are much less likely to get a divorce and more likely to have a long, happy marriage.
In some countries in Europe the marriage rates are lower than the United States and the cohabitation rates are higher. This is because there there are no government benefits to marriage there and less cultural taboos surrounding cohabitation.
Of the 40% of people from the Pew Research Insitute that said that marriage is becoming obsolete, 50% said they still wanted to be married.
"Gender Imbalance in China | All Girls Allowed." Gender Imbalance in China | All Girls Allowed. All Girls Allowed, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
This article was from a nonprofit website that works for the cause of ending the gender imbalance in China. This website is more popular than scholarly. However, on their information page everything is cited with credible sources as well.
In 2012 there were 18 million more boys under the age of 15 in China than girls. Total, the Chinese government estimated that there were 40 million more males than there were females. By 2020 it’s predicted that there will be 30 million men of marriageable age that will not be able to find a wife due to the gender imbalance. In 2005, 1.1 million more boys were born than girls.
They feel that the one child rule is the cause of this imbalance. They researched Tibet where the rule does not apply and they found a normal sex ratio.
In 2005 men were already having trouble finding a wife, only 88% of men marriageable age were married and 99% of women were. 100 million girls have been aborted and the majority of them are from China.
Hallett, Stephanie. "Marriage Rate In America Drops Drastically." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Dec. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
The Huffington article is about statistics showing proof that marriage is indeed declining in America, and expresses some of the potential reasons. Easybib.com says that the Huffington Post is credible and they show their sources at the end of their article.
They say that when the last census was taken in 2010, barely half of the American adult (over 18) population was married. From 2009 to 2010 the percentage of marriages dropped by 5. It said that Americans not only get married less but later too.
The article supports the theory that a reason for the decline of marriage may be that it’s now more socially acceptable to not be married but do things that married people do, like live together and have children. A reason for late marriage is that people just want to be stable before they get married.
This matters because its a change to our society. It will mean a lot to our government in terms of taxes. It’s also more difficult for unmarried people to build wealth which could make for a poorer country. In a survey 40% of people said that marriage is or is becoming obsolete.
"Marriage, a History." Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 21 July 2008. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
This was an article from Psychology Today about marriage through history and how it’s changed. It discussed different ancient civilizations and their reasons for marriage. It goes throughout history and ends in modern times.
Marriage, a History says that in the past marriage was more a matter of money, power, and survival than love. Love was not a good enough reason to be married to someone. During Enlightenment and Victorian eras, adultery was common because of this.
By the 1800’s the views of women changed in the eyes of men. It began with Queen Victoria wearing a virginal white to her wedding and before women had been thought of lustier, but now they were considered pure and clear. This made it much easier for men to have sex with prostitutes than their wives. In the 1920s America dating began and it was all the craze. With this, by the 1950s the nuclear family exploded and that was the world standard. But, in the 1970s women decided that they wanted more independence. And today, people still believe in the perfect lovely wedding but marriage rates are low.
The article was mostly popular in nature and an easy read. However, Psychology Today is a credible source and they had good information on the topic. Their facts and sources are also credible. The article came from psychologists research and perspective.
McManus, Michael., McManus, Harriet.. "How to create an America that saves marriages." Journal of Psychology and Theology 3(2003):196. eLibrary. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
This was a reliable source. It was an article that came from the journal of Psychology and Theology. I found it on eLibrary. It was scholarly vs. popular. It gave information about American marriages and reasons why people don’t want to get married.
The article says that there’s a test called FOCUS which is more or less a compatibility inventory. It can predict a divorce with 80% accuracy. 10-15% of people that take it end up deciding not to marry.
The divorce rate of people that have counseling prior to getting married and talk thorough inventory issues is less than 5%. The marriage rate has plummeted 40.4% since 1970. The article discusses how premarital cohabitation actually leads to a worse marriage. Marriages preceded by living together usually lead to low commitment in a marriage and even lower happiness.
There are many facts and statistics surrounding cohabiting people. 60% of cohabiting women are high school dropouts and only 37% graduate from college. They’re more likely to be liberals, less religious, and children of divorce. They learn from it that living together doesn’t mean permanence so once marriage comes around nothing really changes.
Babies born out of wedlock have increased since cohabitation has increased. 225,000 babies were born out of wedlock in 1960 compared to 1,346,000 in 2000. 40% of children will live with a cohabiting parent.
Miller, Lisa. "Premium Login." What 's Next. What?s Next?, 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013. .
The writing came from a blogger who talked about several trends in society. I just read the section about how people are always wanting to speed everything up, beginning with their technology and how it’s seeping into the rest of their lives.
It was more of an opinion piece than anything but it gave a good idea and idea for further research. They also cited any sources that they used to write their pieces.
Park, Kathy. "WJLA." WJLA. Allbritton Communications Company, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. .
This article came from a news website based in Washington. It was about how plastic surgery is growing in society. It specifically talks about how different cultures have different preferences towards different surgeries.
It’s a reputable source but it doesn’t go in depth about the topic. It basically gave a surface analysis of trends and statistics and would maybe provoke further research and interest.
"Percent Never Married, 1970–2010." Infoplease. Infoplease, 2011. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
This source was just a chart found on Infoplease.com. Infoplease is a credible website and they got their statistics from the US Census Bureau. The data on the table was specific to the United States.
Popcorn, Faith. "Singlarity." Editorial. Faith Popcorn 's Brain Reserve. Faith Popcorn 's Brainreserve, 2013. Article. 12 Dec. 2013. .
Singlarity is a web article about the trend of people wanting to put off or opt out of marriage. She talks about how nuclear families are decreasing in popularity (in the last decade single family households have increased by 30% worldwide) and the US will be the leader by 2020 with 36.3 million.
The article discusses how the standard is changing. In 1970 80% of the population thought someone that wanted to stay single their whole life was sick, yet 50% of marriages end in divorce. She claims that traditional marriage won’t be the norm nor ideal. Reasons she gives are gender barriers being broken, tax laws making marriage more expensive, and democratization of education.
It’s becoming trendy to be single in today’s world. Single people are the trendsetters; they decide what’s cool in art, food, music, etc. They can also indulge and spend more money and feel less guilty about it. Singles spend 33% more on themselves than married people with children.
The article claims children of single people are also better prepared for the world. They say children of single parents are better at handling conflict, responsibility, and disappointment. They also have a clearer set of life priorities. When parents are free of marital stresses their children grow up in a more ideal environment.
Women are the main focus of the single movement. The single life is actually better suited for women because they’re more self nurturing and can better take care of themselves. In 1979 only 18% of women under 50 were unmarried. Today 51% of women under 50 are unmarried. Even exclusively female clubs are being established. Not for lesbian purposes, but for women to meet other women and make connections away from unwanted male attention. Single women even have a special voting power, they were the ones who helped Obama win in 2012, especially hispanic women. Single women are out earning men, buying more homes, and doing better in the stock market. By 2016, women will earn 64% of associates degrees, 60% of bachelor’s degrees, 63% of master’s degrees, and 56% of doctorates.
This article also believes that lifespan plays a part in a single lifestyle. Baby boomers who were married but now divorced generally have no desire to be married again. Also, fertility is changing so women will be able to have babies at a later age if they want them. People are going to go to lives-partners versus life partners, as in someone to have children and sex with, but not be married to.
The piece was a piece of opinion but had statistics and valid ideas. Faith Popcorn is a reputable website and I really enjoyed the source. It gave me the idea for my paper and it a highly thought provoking article. It wasn’t very scholarly, mostly popular.
Rauhala, Emily. "Who Needs Love When You Can Go Shopping?."Time.Com (2013): 1. Academic Search Premier. Article. 8 Jan. 2014.
“Who Needs Love When You Can Go Shopping?” was about how in China they have an “anti-valentine’s day” holiday called Singles Day. It’s celebrated on 11/11 so the numerals resemble trees with bare branches. It’s a day for single and unmarried people to go out with their single and unmarried friends.
Coinciding with singles day in 2013, the singles of China spent $5.7 billion in online shopping. The article also states that males outnumber females in China by 34 million.
The article was scholarly and was an excerpt from Time Magazine, found on EBSCO. It came from a good source but it was very short and went in depth about the day itself and shopping specifics.
Schmitz, Ashleigh. "Do 50% of Marriages Really End in Divorce?" Fox News Magazine. Fox, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.
This was an online article that I used to find out just one fact, and that was that I wanted to know what the actual divorce rate in America was. The article said that the divorce rate is around 50%, but it’s decreasing... along with the marriage rate. Fox news is a credible source and they said they got some of their facts from the CDC which is also reliable.