Modern Marriage Habits Put Family Structures in Catch-Up Mode

By Stephanie Coontz, Greater Good
Posted on October 22, 2007, Printed on October 22, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/65402/

For millennia, marriage decisions were dictated more by economic and political considerations than by love and personal satisfaction. This made marriage a very coercive institution, especially for young people and for women in general. Today, by contrast, people have unprecedented freedom about whether, when, and whom to marry, as well as about how to organize their personal relationships in and out of marriage. Marriages are no longer based on the legal subordination of women and children, and many women have even attained economic equality with their partners.