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Marriage
Family Sociology
Marriage
 With
all the possibilities and popularity
of cohabitation, why do people get
married?
Requires a long-term public commitment
 Fulfills social norms, such as expectation
of parents, friends, relatives
 Married couples get 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
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With all the possibilities and popularity of cohabitation, why
do people get married?
Traditionally marriage has been an integral part of a
sequence of the life course and a key event in the life
course.
Marriage used to be connected to such things such as:
◦
◦
◦
◦

Leaving parental home
Position in the labor market
A regular sex life
Parenthood
Marriage has fewer effects on these things, so it becomes
more acceptable not to marry/ marry/ or divorce
Why do we want to marry?
Why do you want to marry?
 What are the number 1 or 2 most
important reasons why you want to get
married?

Why Get Married
Marriage

Age 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

Generation Y is postponing Marriage
A new study by the Pew Research Center is
discussed in an article in the Christian Science
Monitor
 http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2012/0
213/Modern-romance-Gen-Y-is-late-to-thewedding-but-wants-marriage
 Note that Andrew Cherlin, whose research we
have read, is quoted and how journalism blends
anecdotal stories with real research.

Changing Marital Expectations
According to Julian Sanchez in your book:
Stephanie Coontz argues that one
women, one man idea of marriage is a
new one.
 She argues LOVE partnered with
marriage was an 18th century invention
 See assignment on marriage: what were
some of the other types of marriages in
ancient times?

Marriage Market

Sociologists often study marriage in terms
of the marriage market
◦ Thinking is similar to the employment market

There are 3 components to this “marriage
market”
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Supply – who is available
Preferences – preferred characteristics
Resources – individual characteristics that are
attractive to others
Marriage Market
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The concept of the marriage market is that
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
Marriage Market

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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.
Proximity still makes sense because neighborhoods are
usually stratified by class, ethnicity, and race.
 The importance of proximity is weakening, especially
with advances in communication like the internet, but
still has some effect (according to more recent studies).

Recent Polls on how/where people met
their spouses
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The Harris Interactive/eHarmony study was conducted through a
nationwide online survey using a representative sample of 7,135
Americans aged 20-54 who were married between April 1, 2006
and March 31, 2007.
4.8% of all new marriages in the United States, resulted from
eHarmony
Another new dataset is called: How Couples Meet and Stay
Together (HCMST) survey
18 percent of the surveyed married or committed couples met at
work, just 14 percent met in school or college
Source: http://download.eharmony.com/pdf/Harris-09-ExecutiveSummary.pdf
How Couples Meet
Source:Meeting Online: The Rise of the Internet as a
Social Intermediary Rosenfeld, 2010. PAA presentation.
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.
 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.
Education and Marriage

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In a reversal of long term
marital patterns:
college-educated young
adults are MORE likely
than young adults without
a college degree to have
married by age 30
The college-marriage
gap has closed

Today collegeeducated are as
likely to marry as
the non-college
educated
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.

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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Summary
Cohabitation seems to be another family form
– but it has not replaced marriage
 According 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
