High Divorce Rates

People believe that marriage is easy and is the key to love and happiness, but in reality marriage is harder than it looks. Everyone marries for different reasons, for good or for bad. People today don’t understand the meaning of marriage; it is more than just money and appearance. Seeing today’s world of marriage is being influenced by media shows like Jerry Springer, Judge Judy, and Murray makes you realize how society today identifies marriage different. Couples who live unmarried will be happier and have more choices than those that are married in agreement with Catherine Newman’s essay called I Do. Not.: Why I Won’t Marry in the book “Acting Out Culture: Reading and Writing “, by: James S. Miller. Catherine Newman is a writer and an author

It is believed that trial marriages reduces numbers of divorces, but looking at the recent researches we can find, that a couple who cohabit before marriage is twice as likely to divorce, than those who do not cohabit. There are also people who do not believe in marriage and think that it is an old fashioned in a modern world. Those who think like that, see no reason ever to get married, and rather just live together. There is also a financial side. Today to have a nice, traditional wedding is very expensive and not every couple can afford it, so to live without being married is much easier way. In the other cultures, like in Asia or Middle East, cohabitation is still a taboo and it still means shame and social disapproval and in some places it is illegal to live together before marriage. In this case differences between developed countries and less developed countries are also very clear, but there is one side which should make all cultures believe in same things, it is religion. There is no religion, which allows us to have sexual intercourse before marriage, and Eastern cultures strongly comply with these beliefs. But then it looks like Western cultures, where cohabitation cases are much higher, are no longer religious.

The book has a section entitled, “Marriage is traditional” and in that particular section it mentioned about how “marriage has changed over time.” When examined current day marriage trends show that people are looking for partnership or soul mates, not for the most traditional reasons of the past. The idea that one person is supposed to be with one person for the rest of their life is no longer relevant. It is possible to have many happy years with one person, but that does not mean that these people will die together. People can have a falling out. Situations change—people do grow. If people stayed stagnant their whole lives, where would society be? With the way

Many legal and financial advantages can be attained through marriage. Instead of getting married after high school, people tend to go to college, get their life together, and then marry. The average groom is now thirty-seven and bride thirty-four (Discuss). According to Associated Press Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, “41 percent of spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional.” Couples these days aren’t communicating the proper way. Instead they get mad at each other and ignore one another. One or both people in the relationship have “checked out”, but they don’t want to divorce for the sake of the children. Or they still love each other, valuing each other as a support system and as close friends, but don’t feel that intimacy toward one another. As said in a marriage article from faqs.org, “The study, by the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, found that the marriage rate among Americans is at its lowest point ever. Over the last forty years, the rate has fallen forty-three percent. In addition, fewer people are reporting themselves as being “very happy” in their marriages.” Today, most wedding ceremonies involve a religious service, which contains many traditional features that are significant to their cultures. Christian’s services contain wording that has been unchanged since the

     In years past, the American Dream for most young girls’ is to grow up and be married to Prince Charming and to “Live Happily Ever After!” Although this may be expected - it is rarely fulfilled. Marriage is the legal and binding union between a man and woman. Yet when couples marry, they vow to stay by their partner’s side ‘till death do us part.’ Currently that vow seems to have little or no value in today’s society. The current statistics for survival of marriage are quite grim. The divorce rate in the United States is somewhere between 50 percent and a startling 67 percent. (KSL News) One contributing factor the growing epidemic of divorce is the parting of different family

Today, alternative long-term relationships are growing in times in heterosexual and LGBTQ relationships. Cohabitation is defined by “Recent Changes in Family Structure” as quote: “an intimate relationship that includes a common living place and which exists without the benefit of legal, cultural, or religious sanction.” Between 2005 and 2009 2/3 of relationships approximately were preceded by cohabitation (“Rise of Cohabitation” 2014.) This arrangement is less committed and therefore it takes longer to end, without much emotional devastation of a pricey divorces. Most marriages still begin with cohabitation. However, it is becoming less and less likely that cohabitation will end in a marriage. Marriage is still common in today’s culture, with approximately 60.25 million married couples in 2016 (“Number of married couples in the United States from 1960 to 2016 (in millions)” 2016.) This is evident why it is killing the nuclear family standard. People are having less desire to fully commit to a marriage in the first place. 1950 social standards would have never accepted an unmarried couple as a part of a normal life so only can a legal marriage constitutes the ideal set forth. Another, way to break the standard is remove some components.

To begin with, marriage is a celebration of love, instead of an obligation. The world has transformed into a more open-minded. In bygone days,

However, there are still regional differences in settlement and custody even though all of the states have some form of no-fault divorce. Besides, divorce procedures have become simpler and divorce is once again a personal decision. Nevertheless, the divorce processes are still complicated especially if the married couple have children.

Once Societies rules on divorce changed divorce rates began to climb. A No-fault divorce rule came into effect in the 1950’s. This meant unlike before, they no longer needed to prove who was at fault in the marriage. By 1970, almost all states had laws allowing these no fault divorces. There is no doubt that this was a factor

The majority of people who join together with their significant other through the act of marriage hope and dream that marriage will surround them with infinite love and happiness; unfortunately that is not always the case. In fact, “according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, 10 percent of Maine women and 11 percent of men in Maine are divorced.”1 Though 10 and 11 percent seem like fairly small percentages, 10 percent of Maine women is approximately 67,831 women, and 11 percent of Maine men is approximately 71,506 men, which truly are not small figures to take into consideration. Since marriages do not always have a happy ending

A survey of 14000 adults states in ‘A Guide to Family Issues: The Marriage Advantage’ that marriage was a pertinent factor contributing to happiness and satisfaction with forty percent of the married individuals being happy as opposed to 25 percent of either single or cohabiting individuals. The same study shows that ninety eight percent of never married respondents wished to marry and out of those 88% believed that it should be a lifelong commitment. Even though, divorce rates are rising numerous researches show that young people aspire to have a lasting marriage.

In a society where getting married is a norm, why has it actually become one? In most societies, a marriage is considered a permanent social and legal contract and relationship between two people that is based on mutual rights and obligations among the spouses. When it comes down to it, people come together to get married for so many reasons, some very ordinary, some completely unorthodox. For instance, for love, to start a family, or to continue on the tradition. Plus, some not so common reasons such as, becoming a citizen, and getting married simply for the party and the free gifts. Although, if one of those reasons is the driving force to get married and to be a happy couple, why are the divorce rates so high? After listening to the podcast “Why Marry?”, Stephen Dubner discusses with Justin Wolfers, an economist at the University of Michigan and the Brookings Institution on the topic. It dealt with all the ways that marriage has changed over the last 50 years. They all brought up key reasonings on why they thought it has turned the way it has. Dunbar brought up “productive complementarities” and “consumption complimentary”, while Wolfers shares his thought on how generations have changed throughout time.

Today marriages do not last long leaving families broken and torn

Marriage is a ritual that has had great importance on society and human life. Marriage is the promise of a man and a woman as husband and wife for as long as they shall live. Our society believes in marriage because this ritual combines the love of two different families to make one big family. That’s exactly why marriage in my family is extremely significant. The ceremony itself delivers love and joy which makes this ritual so special. Schechner describes these American weddings to be “both secular and sacred” (53). Many secular rituals started many years back. These rituals include cutting and eating of the cake, throwing the bouquet, and sharing a dance with the one you love. These are still very common in many marriages. What makes a wedding a ritual and not a habit is the fact that this kind of ritual transforms a person permanently. This is also known as “rites of passage” (Schechner 53), in which you are going from one life status to another. The sacred part of a wedding ceremony would be getting married in a church, temple, or neither depending on the type of religion you believe

As a little girl, I never dreamed of falling in love or getting married. I never understood marriage, and in the society we live today, I still don’t. Everyone talks about how special and sacred a marriage is, but I see it as nothing more than some kind words, a kiss, and a party. I believe we as a society are so busy with big expensive weddings, we fail to have any real tradition or spiritualness such as the Native Americans do. Brides are much to busy with buying the biggest, most beautiful dress to impress her guests. A wedding dress be more significant and meaningful rather than something pretty made from a stranger. Native American tribes such as the Cherokee, Apache, and Omaha have some of the most meaningful marriage customs. Is there something to be learned from their way of marriage and celebration?