Реферат: Changes In Women And Marriage Essay Research

between 1992 and 2010 for all age groups under 55 (Crispell).

According to Allen & Kalish (1984), the timing of a first

marriage is related to the attractiveness of the alternatives to

marrying. When women value roles that provide viable alternatives to

the role of wife, they delay marriage. The role of women has undergone

significant transformation brought about by changes in society.

Today?s families are smaller and live longer, thereby allowing women

to devote a smaller part of their lives to raising children than was

the case in earlier times (Allen & Kalish). Thus, more time is left

for other pursuits. A woman who enters her first marriage at an older

age is less likely to exchange dependence on her parents for

dependence on a husband (Unger & Crawford, 1992). Elder (1974) found

that women who married later were more likely to have careers,

financial stability and be middle class as opposed to lower class

background. What has transformed societal attitudes toward marriage so

that young women delay it, older women get out of it, and some women

skip it altogether? Economic factors, a rise in feminism, parental

influences, attitudes about sex, educational pursuits, and the divorce

rate have all undergone significant cultural changes and are among

some of the reasons being credited for influencing the ideas women

have about marriage. Let?s examine these influences and the attitudes

of women which determine their decision to marry or delay marriage. We

will also examine the expectations of marriage that today?s educated

women may have and how these expectations differ from other women?s

expectations.

Economic factors have resulted in women working outside the

home, and have had a strong influence over a woman?s decision to

marry. ?The ever increasing opportunities for women to work outside

the home make her less and less dependent, economically, upon a