Fewer middle-class women follow what one study calls the "success sequence" of education, work, marriage and childbearing. They may get married, but only later, and not have children. Increasingly, they are having children, but postponing the wedding.
The recession's financial stresses did nothing to slow the trend. If anything, the retreat from marriage is spreading from the least affluent Americans "into the solid middle of the middle class," according to the 2010 study, "When Marriage Disappears," by the National Marriage Project, at the University of Virginia.
Becca Bijoch, 25, feels no societal pressure to marry. "I think it's definitely different than it's ever been before, probably even in the past 10 years," said Bijoch, who works for a public relations firm in Minneapolis.
"Not feeling that pressure gives me the opportunity to focus on my career and have more great life experiences I might not be able to have if I was in a serious relationship."
...In Minnesota, almost one in three new mothers is unmarried, says the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), up from about one in four 10 years ago. Fewer than one in five are teenagers, continuing the decline in teen births. More than 42 percent are at least 25 years old.
What's going on with marriage here reflects national trends, which show an even stronger shift, with four in 10 births to unmarried women, more than double the rate in 1970, according to the NCHS. Of these births, 60 percent are to women in their 20s.
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However varied the society with its people can or will become, it will still, and always, be legitimate within that society for the man woman life long union to have a unique word to name itself. Anything less is oppression and manipulation of the people by the powers that be.
(On another subject: All those professional money making women, one day soon to be in the market to buy a baby. Another blessing to our economy. Women who know how to do everything at 25 to 40 years of age, except how to have children, respect their father, be a wife and raise a family. Exactly where our social engineering experts wanted to take us. Job well done.)
"It's more like women are saying, 'This guy isn't marriage material, but he's good enough to have a child with, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if I got pregnant.'"
This is sad, but true. And what foolishness. A man is good enough to have a child with, but not marry?
Little do women with this mindset know that having children while unmarried diminishes future marriage opportunities for them when the "marriage material" comes along.
Isn't it something how one "choice mom" in the article feels that other families with a father will suffice for her kids; but when they go to college *she* will need a partner for companionship? Seems pretty selfish to me. Her boys don't need their own father, but she will need a companion once they leave. Sounds like the "children are pets" mentality.
Well, this disturbing trend of marriage erosion among the middle class is evidence of how marital norms can unravel if society is not careful. It also shows what kind of decisions people make when they dissociate marriage from procreation.
But at least we can now put to rest the myth that men and women are not marrying because of neighborhood job loss, etc. Marriage decline is the cause of fundamental and negative shifts in attitudes towards the institution that I hope we can reverse.
One theme that persisted in the article was about divorce, and the prominence it has in the minds of people contemplating marriage. Goes to show how frivolous divorce has carried harm through to the present today, particularly by effecting societal disposition towards marriage: the now weakest of contracts.
Interesting. The whole situation turned out to be the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen when we abolished 'Welfare As We Knew It'. Not only has the collapse of marriage subsequently snowballed among the poor, the decline of marriage and the de-linking of marriage and childbearing has spread to other sectors of the population.
This is obviously happening because gay people can get married in some states. I thought I could save all of you some time.
Gay people can get married in all states, Rick.
According to my female Sociology Professor:
"The reason why divorce has become so predominant in the United States is because women started viewing divorce as a right."
Considering the fact that 80% of all divorces in the United States are initiated by women she may not be too far off...
Similar trends occurred during the Great Depression, though at a much slower pace. Today's society places more value on what feels good instead of what's right. It's no longer endearing for a woman to want to be a stay at home mom, it's more "liberating" to put your own desires ahead of your family.
This is what secularism has done. It'll take time, but I'm certain we can reverse the damage the progressives have wrought.
Ash....perhaps soon you will be correct.
Rick,
Ash is already correct; I looked it up and it is true. Perverts can marry a member of the opposite sex just like everybody else.
Isn’t equality grand?
What puzzels me is that these miscreants claim they cannot marry the one the love. Are perverts incappable of loving people who do not have the same reproductive organ as them?
Seems a little odd that they would equate discrimination with equality.
This story is just sad.
me me me.