{"id":19210,"date":"2020-06-18T08:21:33","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T12:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/?p=19210"},"modified":"2021-01-27T10:36:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T15:36:53","slug":"no-good-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/no-good-men","title":{"rendered":"No Good Men?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last updated on January 27th, 2021 at 10:36 am<\/p>\n

Continuing its rapid downward spiral, the marriage rate in\nthe U.S. hit another historic low in 2018, according to a recent\nCDC report<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMuch variation can be seen in marriage rates over the 1900\u20132018 period,\u201d according to the report, with rates ranging from 9.3 to 12 per 1,000 in the period 1900-1929, dropping to 7.9 during the Great Depression, and then reaching an all-time high (16.4) in 1946. Rates have gradually fallen since, but \u201cstabilized\u201d at 6.8-7 in the period 2009-2017. But \u201c[f]rom 2017 to 2018, the rate dropped 6%, from 6.9 per 1,000 population to 6.5, the lowest of the 1900\u20132018 period,\u201d and also the lowest recorded level<\/a> since data have been kept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is causing such precipitous declines? A U.S.\nNews and World Report story<\/a> cites \u201cwomen\u2019s independence and gender\nequality.\u201d But another interesting perspective comes from researchers from\nCornell, Brigham Young, and South Utah Universities. These\nresearchers find<\/a> that women aren\u2019t just whining when they complain about a\nlack of \u201cmarriageable men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRecent declines in U.S. marriage are reflected both in\ndelayed marriage and increases in permanent singlehood, punctuated by\nintermittent spells of nonmarital cohabitation,\u201d open the researchers. Whether\ndue to differences in education, a decline in economic prospects, or racial\ndisparities, \u201c[y]oung women seemingly face shortages of demographically similar\nmen to marry.\u201d And yet, all studies indicate that marriage remains a top\npriority for most young people. There is a gap between intentions and reality,\nwhich the researchers seek to understand. Their discussion focuses on two\ngroups specifically: Poorly educated or low-income women, and highly educated\nwomen, both of whom fare the worst on the marriage market. (The women in the\nmiddle of the spectrum seem to fare better.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conduct their analysis, the researchers use five-year\ndata samples from the American Community Survey, covering the periods 2008-2012\nand 2013-2017, then split this data into four groups based on sex and marital\nstatus (males and females, married and \nunmarried). They do not consider same-sex couples, and they assign\ncohabiting couples into the \u201cunmarried\u201d category instead of the \u201cmarried\u201d\ncategory, which they say reflects cohabitation\u2019s increasingly unstable nature.\nThey then seek to assess \u201cthe characteristics of the spouse to whom the\nunmarried women in our sample would likely be married, assuming they exhibit\nthe same mate selection patterns as currently married women.\u201d The researchers\nestimate the \u201csynthetic spouse\u201d of each unmarried woman, then compare the\ncharacteristics of the synthetic spouse with the characteristics of the actual\nunmarried men in their sample.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results are grim, for unmarried women nationwide. \u201cThe\nsynthetic spouses had an average income that was about 55% higher ($53,000 vs.\n$35,000), were 26% more likely to be employed (87% vs. 70%), and were 18% more\nlikely to have a college degree (29% vs. 25%) than the actual unmarried men who\nwere available in the United States. These estimates suggest large differences\nin the demand and supply of unmarried men with certain characteristics.\u201d In the\ndata for actual unmarried men, \u201cthere was an excess supply of men with incomes\nless than $20,000 (with a shortage of men with incomes greater than $40,000) as\nwell as a marriage market mismatch in education\u2014too many men had only a high\nschool degree and too few had a college or graduate degree.\u201d The researchers\nalso added that, encouragingly, men who married their child\u2019s mother tended to\nsee an income uptick, and that their findings may not accurately represent this\nreality. Younger and less-educated women had an easier time finding husbands\nthan did older or more-educated women. These findings were much more stark for\nracial minorities, who \u201cwere significantly less likely to find suitable marital\npartners, regardless of their education or income levels.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers also understand that marriage doesn\u2019t happen in a vacuum, and thus sought to take geographic location into account. When requiring that marriages take place within PUMAs (Public Use Microdata Areas), the odds of finding good husbands get even lower. \u201cFor example,\u201d they report, \u201ca 10% increase in a woman\u2019s age was associated with a 2.42 percentage point decrease in likelihood of finding a match nationwide. When we required all matches to occur within the same PUMA, a 10% increase in women\u2019s age correlated with a 15.32 percentage point decrease in the likelihood of finding a suitable match.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The researchers close by affirming that yes, claims that\nmarriageable men are hard to find are founded in the research, summarizing,\n\u201cOur analyses provide clear evidence of an excess supply of men with low income\nand education and, conversely, shortages of economically attractive unmarried\nmen (with at least a bachelor\u2019s degree and higher levels of income) for women\nto marry.\u201d They suggest that \u201cpromoting good jobs\u201d may thus be more important\nthan promoting marriage education courses as a way to stimulate marriage. They\nalso wonder if, in response to this new trend, women may start considering\n\u201cmarrying down\u201d instead of \u201cmarrying up,\u201d but point out that this has historically\nnot been the practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever the solution, the problem is real. Whatever the\ndriving forces, being a single woman on the marriage market these days is\ndifficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marriage rates are dropping, and one new study indicates a lack of marriageable men may partly to blame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":19218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"Marriage rates are dropping, and one new study indicates a lack of marriageable men may be partly to blame.","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"514"},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[510],"tags":[427],"class_list":["post-19210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-family","tag-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\nNo Good Men? 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King is the Managing Editor of IOF's journal, The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy, the United States\u2019 leading journal of family-policy research. In that capacity, she writes, edits and corresponds with editors and contributors to ensure that each issue provides the most relevant and accurate research and policy analysis available. Nicole holds a B.A. in English as well as M.A.s in English and Political Theory. She has contributed to The Front Porch Republic and Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture, among others. 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