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Marriage

Introduction to Family Studies

FCST 200

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With all the possibilities and popularity of cohabitation, why do people get married?

Requires a long-term public commitment

Fulfilling social norms, such as expectation of parents, friends, relatives

Legal rights and privileges reserved for spouses

+Marriage

With all the possibilities and popularity of cohabitation, why do people get married?

Allows for emotional investment with reduced risk of abandonment

Increases the probability that children raised by two parents

Marriage is a social institution that confers legality on a relationship

+Marriage

With all the possibilities and popularity of cohabitation, why do people get married?

Traditionally marriage has been a KEY part of a sequence of the life course

Marriage used to be connected to such things as:Leaving your parent’s home Position in the labor marketA regular sex life Parenthood

Marriage has less effect on these things, so it becomes more acceptable not to marry/ marry/ or divorce

Changes in the Importance College Students Attach to Characteristics of Marriage Partners, 1939-1996.

CHARACTERISTICS THAT HAVE INCREASED IN VALUE SINCE 1939

(1996 RANKING IN PARENTHESES)

FOR MEN FOR WOMEN

Love (1) Love (1) Education (5) Education (5) Sociability (7) Sociability (8) Good looks (8) Good looks (13) Similar educational background (12) Good financial prospects (13)

CHARACTERISTICS THAT HAVE DECREASED IN VALUE (1996 RANKING IN PARENTHESES)

FOR MEN FOR WOMEN

Desire for home and children (9) Ambition, industriousness (7) Refinement, neatness (11) Good health (9) Good cook, homemaker (14) Refinement, neatness (7) Chastity (16) Chastity (17)(Source: Buss, Shackelford, Kirkpatrick, & Larson, 2001)

Note values on this table and how change occurred

+ What characteristics are most important

The top half of the table shows characteristics that have become MORE important over time:

For BOTH Men and women LOVE is the #1 characteristic for a marriage partner and education is #5

But look at the importance of good looks for men (#8) vs. women # 13!

The bottom half of the chart shows those characteristics that have decreased in importance:

Chastity, neatness, good cook and homemaker

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MarriageAge of marriage has increased considerably

This related to several other changes:

1) Rise in cohabitation.

2) Technological advances in contraceptives

3) Increases in educational attainment, esp. for women

4) Increased female labor force participation

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Marriage

“The United States crossed an important marital threshold in 2009, with the number of young adults who have never married surpassing, for the first time in more than a century, the number who were married.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/us/29marriage.html

Source: New York Times, October 3, 010,http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/us/29marriage.html

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Marriage Market

Sociologists often study marriage in terms of the marriage marketThinking is similar to the employment market

There are 3 components to this “marriage market”

Supply – who is available

Preferences – preferred characteristics

Resources – individual characteristics that are attractive to others

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The concept of the marriage market:

unmarried individuals search for spouses with an acceptable set of desired characteristics

What are some of these desired characteristics? Propinquity (Proximity) Religion Education Class Race Personal Traits

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Marriage Market

Proximity – where ones lives.

Proximity is important as you actually have to come into contact with someone to meet them and start dating – A study in 1958 showed that people most like to marry lived within 2-3 miles of each other.

The importance of proximity is weakening, especially with advances in communication like the internet, but still has some effect (according to more recent studies).

Proximity still makes sense because neighborhoods are usually stratified by class, ethnicity, and race.

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Marriage Market

Religion – there is a strong tendency to marry within the same religious group – though this is also changing.

Research has shown that: Inter-marriages are less stable and more likely to

end in divorceInter-marriage varies by gender and religion

Jews – males more likely to intermarryCatholics – females more likely

When the less typical combination occurs, the marriage is more likely to end in divorce.

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Marriage Market

Education: women are becoming more educated so the old pattern of men marrying a wife with less education is no longer the norm.

1/3 of married women now have more education than their husbands

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/fashion/24marriage.html?scp=13&sq=January%2024%202010&st=Search

But similar education is preferred, particularly because more education often means more earning potential, and this is now preferred by both men & women

Educational attainment may also reflect social class.

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Marriage Market

Education:

In the past, those who did NOT have a college degree were more likely to be married by age 30

Now college educated are more likely to postpone marriage today than their less educated counterparts.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1756/share-married-educational-attainment

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Marriage Market

Class: most people marry within their social class (measured by their occupation or their parents’ occupation).

Many people seek to marry up – this is called hypergamy

Hypergamy is defined as: marrying up in social status.

Women more likely to marry up, men down.

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Marriage Market

Race: most marry within their racial group

In the past -- laws against inter-racial marriage (miscegenation)

Still on the books in some southern states until the Supreme Court overturned them in 1967

Sociologists expect that inter-racial marriage will become more common 

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Marriage Market Personal Traits - People tend to marry people like

themselves In what ways?

1) IQ - may be the result of a similar background

2) Physical similarities – which may also be from marrying within ethnic group

3) Physical attractiveness – similar measure of physical attractiveness.

Research has shown that a marriage may be less stable when the partners are unequal in attractiveness

 

Who is Getting Married and Who is Not?

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SummaryCohabitation has become a new family

form – but it has not replaced marriageAccording to Cherlin – marriage today is a

paradox, that as people enter marriage, they are more likely to judge it by a single standard – personal fulfillment - which is difficult when you are an individual in a couple.

People are more likely to marry those who are similar to them in religion, race, class, educational attainment, and attractiveness