Today, more and more Americans are either not marrying or marrying later in life. There are a variety of reasons which have had an impact on this trend. Among those reasons are adults having children outside of wedlock, high divorce rates, and women becoming more active in the workplace.
The Pew Research Center has done an analysis of men’s and women’s attitudes concerning marriage issues.
Marriage Rates in the United States
Census data from the 2012 census shows that 17% of women and 23% of men are unmarried. This is an increase from the year 2000 in which 17% of men and 12% of women were unmarried. Has the concept of marriage become less popular in America? The Pew Research Survey found both American men and women are still interested in getting married. The study showed 55% of the men and approximately 50% of the women indicated they were interested in getting married. Women who have already been married were less likely to be interested in marrying a second time than men. 29% of men were interested in marrying a second time while only 15% of women indicated they were interested in marrying again.
What Do Women Want From a Man?
When presented with the question, what women wanted most from a man in a marriage, more than 3/4 indicated the man having a steady job was “very important”. Both men and women, the study indicated, preferred marrying someone who had a similar level of education. This indicates the traditional ideas concerning the male being the breadwinner is still accepted in our society. So a steady job seems to be what a woman wants in a man! This goes hand in hand with recent studies which have shown that marriages where the man is unemployed have a high divorce rate.
Elliot S. Schlissel is a divorce attorney representing men and women experiencing legal problems regarding child custody, division of marital assets, and with other divorce related issues.