The Marriage Gap

My husband told me about this thought-provoking article on marriage that ran in City Journal last week and now, having finally read it, I think it is only right to pass it on to the blog world.

Kay Hymowitz, a fascinating contributor who writes like a sociologist although she is actually an English professor, explores the growing socioeconomic divide between women who marry and women who don't. She then expands on the sociological impact and trends that result from marriage. I have no idea what ideological camp she is in, but based on everything I've read she seems to err toward thoughtful conservatism and she cares deeply about the poor. Here is a brief excerpt outlining her argument about why marriage still has significance as a social institution:

There is something fundamentally different about low-income single mothers and their educated married sisters. But a key part of that difference is that educated women still believe in marriage as an institution for raising children. What is missing in all the ocean of research related to the Marriage Gap is any recognition that this assumption is itself an invaluable piece of cultural and psychological capital—and not just because it makes it more likely that children will grow up with a dad in the house. As society’s bulwark social institution, traditional marriage—that is, childbearing within marriage—orders social life in ways that we only dimly understand.

For the full (lengthy) article, click here.