Essay On Marriage And Social Inequality

Marriage and Social Inequality It has been claimed that in the future, differences between married-couple families and other families will continue to be a growing source of social inequality. One reason that this is untrue is the changing landscape of American society; namely, the gradual replacement of the older percentage of the population (those over age 55) with younger individuals. Older people tend towards having more conservative political views, as well as being more religious than younger generations (Cohen 473). Their conservatism means that they generally believe in the 1960’s gold standard of the American family: a married heterosexual couple living with only their biological children (Cohen 457). They consider modern diversity among families (where this traditional ‘ideal’ makes up less than half of family types today) to be detrimental to the institution of marriage. And since the older age demographic occupies up most public and political positions, they have a disproportionate amount of say and influence on both law and public opinion. Their tendency to be more conservative is reflected …show more content…
These reasons are all related to the younger generations who should, right about now, be getting married (according to marriage age statistics). However, they simply are not; or at least, they are getting married less often, marrying later in life than previous generations, and getting divorced more often than ever before (Cohen 262). Culture is one reason: younger people are more individualistic and less family-oriented, and combined with a more relaxed attitude towards marriage, younger people today simply desire marriage less. Economics is another, because marriage is no longer necessary to merge monetary resources. Whatever the reasons, today’s youth simply do not hold the institution of marriage in high