Free Essay About Reasons For Marrying Late In Life

Even as recently as the years leading up to World War II, if a young woman reached the age of 20 without receiving a marriage proposal, she was viewed as someone who might never get married. After World War II, in which women were invited to enter a vast diversity of career fields for the first time (because the available men were all off fighting Hitler and Tojo), women found that they wanted to remain in the career field, and marriage became an option rather than an economic necessity. The entry of women into the career field, the acceptance of cohabitation as a lifestyle and the inability of young men in the lower socioeconomic tiers are all factors that have pushed the average age of first marriage later for adults in the United States.
The idea that women can have successful careers and also be mothers and wives has inspired many of them to complete a college degree and then embark on successful careers before turning their attention to marriage. Because it is extremely rare to finish a bachelor’s degree before the age of 22, and establishing a career footprint takes several years, women pursuing this goal find themselves still single as they near the age of 30. For some, their careers carry them well into their 30s, or even further, before they find someone to marry. Men, of course, have had a similar time frame for their own plans, but in the decades before World War II, they would find a wife soon after college and then build their families together, meaning that marriage still happened in the early to mid-20s for men. The desire to complete an education and begin a career ends up pushing the marriage age back.
For those who find serious relationships before graduating from college or establishing career success, cohabitation without marriage is becoming a more commonly accepted option. Partners move in together and start thinking about marriage as a future option, toward which they both save money while living together. Some view living together as giving marriage a “trial run,” while others simply view living together and being married as two separate stages. This is a shift from the mores of earlier generations, but for those in the higher socioeconomic tiers, it means that when couples finally start a family, they have more of a financial foundation in place. The acceptance of cohabitation is making people wait later to get married.
The news is somewhat more grim for those further down the socioeconomic ladder. Young men who do not graduate from high school on time generally do not have the means to support a family, even if they get a job. The wages that they make are barely enough to sustain their own lifestyle, let alone to make having children an option. When they get their girlfriends pregnant, many of them abandon the children rather than marrying the mother. The girlfriends are left to raise the children on their own, with support from their parents or other family members. In earlier generations, the young men would have married their girlfriends and made the best of it, but in recent years, abandonment has become the norm. Neither the young man nor the young woman, after this abandonment, is in a position to marry, either each other or another person, pushing the average age older in this group as well. Single mothers with infants and toddlers simply lack the time or energy to date, and single fathers with a track record of abandoning their children are not looking for marriage. The harsh economic realities of entering adult life in poverty is making marriage happen later.
The phenomenon of later marriage in life is actually indicative of a growing split in society along class lines. Members of the higher classes are finishing college and beginning a career before marrying, and cohabitation is often an option, both in the upper and lower economic social tiers. Those who are entering adult life in poverty are often not choosing to build families together, even if they have children, meaning that marriage is later for them as well.