Dimensions of Family Change: Marriage Transformed

Abstract

Chapter 1 examined various changes in gender roles, fertility, age and generation. This chapter will now examine changes in marriage, which have been significant. Marriage is occurring later and less often; divorce has become more common, as have families with only one resident parent (usually the mother). Second and subsequent marriages after divorce, heterosexual cohabitation without formal marriage, and child bearing and rearing outside formal marriage, sometimes in a cohabitation but sometimes also by a mother alone, have become more common features of society. Particular emphasis is placed on the significance of these changes in terms of a rejection of formal marriage.