The following is excerpted from The Federalist. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
While recently sharing a meal with a group of Gen Z and Millennial young adults, we discussed whether marriage is still relevant. Marriage was once almost a given, but the pathway to family life is far less straightforward today.
Over pasta and salad, our dinner companions raised questions about what women and men want out of relationships and why the prospect for marriage seems so uncertain today. What happened? How did so many developed countries shift away from a culture where young people once confidently said “I do?”
This is the central question we ask in our new book, I…Do? Why Marriage Still Matters. We’ve identified at least five forces that have reshaped how young adults understand marriage and left them less confident about the prospect of enjoying a healthy married life.
1. Second-Wave Feminists Went After Men and Marriage
The form of feminism found still today on many university campuses preaches that marriage “annihilates woman” (Simone de Beauvoir), that marriage mainstreams rape (Andrea Dworkin), and that the demise of marriage should be generally celebrated (Kate Millett).
While this wholesale rejection of marriage never completely won the day, it has influenced our thinking. 2023 data shows 51.4 percent of women between 18 and 40 are single, neither married nor cohabiting. Also in 2023, Pew Research Center reported 28 percent of men, compared with only 18 percent of women, said being married is extremely or very important for a fulfilling life.
An anti-family form of feminism is not the sole reason for this trend, but it is one way to rob women and men of the confidence that healthy marriage is good for both sexes. It’s time to rethink and challenge this ideology and promote positive views of family, marriage, and both sexes.
2. The Divorce Revolution
In 1969, as governor of California, Ronald Reagan enacted no-fault divorce, a change rippling across states that led to a doubling in the divorce rate in the United States between 1960 and 1980. Some now call no-fault divorce “unilateral divorce,” meaning now one person can single-handedly get out of a marriage, surprising his or her spouse by serving papers.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
