David Popenoe

David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead’s article “The State of our Unions” discusses data on marriage and divorce. It suggests that there is a cultural shift happening in America by using this information for support. In the data driven article, Popenoe and Whitehead claim that marriage rates are declining and, despite divorce rates being quite high, they are also on a steady decline. Alternatively, more people are participating in unmarried cohabitation before and in place of marriage. Stating, “As an institution, marriage has lost much of its legal, social, economic, and religious meaning and authority.” The authors believe that marriage no longer has the same prestige that it once had and instead the meaning of marriage itself has been redefined. Popenoe and Whitehead present the article in a very logical way, explaining how ideas about marriage have evolved and using statistics to support their claims. Proposing that “ It is a sign of the times that the overwhelming majority (94%) of never married singles in our survey agreed that ‘when you marry, you want your spouse to be your soul mate, first and foremost.’” They go on to explain that this is a new …show more content…
There are stirrings of a grassroots ‘marriage movement.’” However, they also state that “These positive trends bear watching and are encouraging, but it is too soon to tell whether they will persist or result in the revitalization of this critical social institution.” In other words, we will have to wait to see how these new ideas affect marriage as an institution moving forward. Over all their use of analyzing data as a base for their ideas about marriage works very well and keeps them from being biased. The article is informative and allows the reader to form their own opinion on the subject and the authors were able to clearly explain the cultural shift that has taken place in America