Many people today spend their lives outside of marriage. This may be because people marry later in life or they are living with someone outside of marriage. People also tend to get out of marriage more frequently today than in the past if they are unhappy. Contributing to this is women outlive their spouses and do not remarry. It is estimated that just over half of all women are living as singles. Yet about 80 to 90 percent of us will marry at some point in our lives. The institution of marriage is alive and well, albeit for different reasons compared to several decades ago. This is the finding of Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin. The fourth edition of his book, Public and Private Families: an Introduction, explores among other things, the institution of marriage.

It used to be that marriage was more a matter of economic necessity. Having a partner better enabled both individuals to survive or have a higher standard of living. That is no longer the driving factor. Today a single person can not only survive but thrive. In the middle part of the last century, people often married while still in their teens. The focus was on the partnership and a lifelong commitment. Both spouses were committed in fulfilling their role as the homemaker or breadwinner. There was less emphasis on individual desires. Today individuals strive to blend their personal desires within the constraints and confines of the institution of marriage.

Today a common path leading to marriage is to graduate from college, become established in the work force, date different people, live with someone and then get married (not always with the one you lived with). Partners getting married tend to highly value the wedding ceremony and see it as a celebration of a major achievement.

Cherlin finds that people from different socioeconomic levels equally value marriage although the path to marriage may be different. Individuals from the middle or upper class traditionally get an education, become employed, meet someone or several people, get married and raise a family. People with a lower income value marriage but often postpone it because the men oftentimes do not have steady employment. This in turn causes women with the same socioeconomic background to have children before they marry from the fear of waiting too long. Having children outside of marriage is often considered acceptable in lower income communities. Women value marriage just as highly as those from middle or upper incomes but their path to marriage is often later, after 30 years old.

It has also become easier today for individuals to get out of and into marriage. People value the need for a partner and the commitment that marriage provides. They will often re-enter into the institution although earlier attempts have failed. Live-in partners notwithstanding, individuals today often see marriage as the ultimate form of commitment to another person.

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