American Marriage in Transition free essay sample

American Marriage in Different Eras Marriage has changed dramatically over time in the many years it has been around. What do think Marriage was like 100 years ago? The article, â€Å"American Marriage in Transition†, describes how many different types of marriage there are and how people have changed their view on it. Andrew Cherlin (the sociologist of the article) does a great job going in depth explaining American marriage. He arranges the different marriages in three different categories; Institutionalized which was the earliest type of marriage, then Companionship around World War II, and currently we are considered Individualized. Institutionalized marriage is the earliest type of marriage that he describes in the article. This was where the men were mainly the bread winners and the women would stay home with the kids and do chores around the house. The couples would only be having kids if they were married and it was very rare back then to have any without any marital status. We will write a custom essay sample on American Marriage in Transition or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The U. S. National Center for Health says, â€Å"1 of 6 births in the United States occurred outside of marriage. † Usually the women would not have any education the majority of the time. Also back in the day they would have gotten married younger than today’s standard which makes it very surprising that getting divorce was very unlikely. The concept of same sex marriage was not talked about and was pretty much banned from society, also the thought of having multiple partners was either not allowed or just hidden from everybody finding out. Marriage started to transition into the companionship marriage where it is more common to see some of the men staying home and the women in the workforce. This would start happening around very challenging times like World War II and the Depression. There would most likely be split chores or responsibilities around the house that the men and the women would take turns doing. This first change of getting married was starting to become more of a choice rather than a necessity. This way of marriage still remained the only socially acceptable way to have a sexual relationship and to raise children in their home. The sociologists of the time say that 4% of kids were born outside the marriage. They were marrying at a lot younger ages between 1900 and 1960 which average age went from 26 to 23 for men and from 22 to 20. Around that time the birth rate increased at a very dramatic rate. So after the World War II the whole meaning of marriage began to weaken, which started the next type of marriage. Beginning in the early 1960’s the average age of men and women rose back to an all-time high, with men around 27 and women around 25. This is where we start seeing more individualized marriages. Most of them wanted to stay single until they finished their education and found some sort of stable job to support the family. So that’s when it came a lot more acceptable to have kids outside the marriage and have a family without being married. The divorce rate increased substantially and so did the number of same sex marriages, which was looked upon differently for the first time. For the household chores the men in the relationship started to become a lot more understanding and more helpful in the house. This is when we also see both the men and women working outside the home.