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Figure 11.5 Divorce and Marriage Rates: 1940–1998. Can you apply what you learned in history to interpret this chart?
(a) What happened in the mid-1940s that caused the dramatic rise in marriage rates during this period? (b) Why do you think the marriage rate dropped so low in the 1950s?
(c) What are some possible reasons that the divorce rate peaked in 1980?
Unit 4 Social Institutions
16 14 12 10
8
6
4
2
0
1940 1950 1960 1970
Year
1980
1990 2000 1998
Divorce rate
Marriage rate
Source: National Vital Statistics Reports 47, 1999.
marriage rate
the number of marriages per year for every one thousand members of a population
divorce rate
are expected to find suitable mates for the young. Criteria for mate selection include caste, wealth, family reputation, and appearance. Love is not absent in Hindu marriages, but love follows marriage rather than the other way around (Cox, 1999).
While romantic love is almost always stated as a condition for marriage in modern societies, it is seldom the only condition. People marry for many rea- sons, and romantic love may be only one of many reasons. A person may marry to enter a powerful family or to advance a career. One of the strongest motivations for marriage is conformity. Parents expect their children to marry after a certain age and worry about them—perhaps even pressure them—if their children remain single very long. Peers are another source of pressure. Since well over 90 percent of all adults in the United States do marry, confor- mity must certainly be a motivating factor.
Americans typically believe that a marriage that is not based on romantic love cannot last. It is more accurate to say that a marriage based only on ro- mantic love is almost sure to fail. While love may be a good start, it is only the beginning. For a marriage to last, a couple must build a relationship that goes beyond romantic love (Crosby, 1985).
The marriage rate—the number of marriages per year for every thou- sand members of the population—has fluctuated, in the United States, since 1940. As shown in Figure 11.5, the marriage rate peaked at over 16.0 imme- diately following World War II. Since then, the marriage rate, with ups and downs, has been cut in half.
Divorce
The divorce rate is the number of divorces per year for every one thou- sand members of the population. Except for a peak and decline after World War II, the divorce rate in the United States increased slowly between 1860 and the early 1960s. A dramatic increase occurred over the next twenty years, when
the number of divorces per year for every one thousand members of the population
Marriages/divorces per 1,000 persons