Marriage and divorce rates are down to levels not seen since the 70s. What do you attribute most to this decline?

Question

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Less people are getting married, women don’t want to get married. This is my take, if someone regardless if you are guy or girl, man or woman are not ready to get married, that’s okay forcing marriage is not. But I’m old school, I believe in marriage and i do want to get married. When people say do more with their lives I don’t know what they mean? Travel around the world? Because I haven’t travelled anywhere with my guy friends. I find a marriage more fulfilling, that feeling of love is special. But I just feel like the younger generation has a me-centric/I’m right attitude or are still immature so it’s a recipe for disaster if anyone has that mind set when it comes to marriage. If a marriage breaks because of cheating or money woes or violence I can understand. But if a woman leaves a man even though he’s a loving, caring, hard working man and she’s divorcing him because she’s “bored”, then people like that should not get married to begin with. When people say marriage is oppression I want to live my life…Having a job with a jerk of a boss and “travelling” once or twice a year is ultimate freedom, it really isn’t in my opinion, it’s just a facade. Some people are soo broken inside they don’t want to get married because some crush scorned them or their parents didn’t love each other so they don’t want to repeat history. There are many reasons why. I will find a girl I love and I will get married and love her and care for her as a guy/man should. I don’t care if people want to be single and say fuck marriage because one day people age and will just die alone not having that one true companion, even friends move on and you gotta retire. I believe in the hereafter of heaven or hell so i want to be a good person so you can be reunited with your spouse in heaven. People can dislike my comment or laugh or cringe at this comment but I don’t care. People also laughed at me when I warned people something bad is going to happen back in 2019 for 2020, and lo and behold it did sooo 🤷🏻‍♂️

wankiam · Accepted Answer

voted g... my theory is now that it has become less of a societal demand to be married, people tend to do it for more genuine reasons... love rather than feeling they ust need to. also the slow demise of the church will have played a part.

AmandaYVR · Accepted Answer

It's because people are waiting until they are older to get married, so they tend to know themselves and the other person better. Fewer surprises, less growing apart as they age/grow internally.
Also, in times of economic instability, this causes stress; which causes more bickering and issues come up in the marriage. But it also means both parties are in a less viable economic situation to split up. Divorce is costly.
These are the two reasons that I remember reading. There are others, but can't remember atm.

dustybiker · Accepted Answer

It’s probably a mixture of all of those things. They are all pretty strong reasons.

MrOracle · Answer

Divorce rates have fallen, but only because marriage rates have fallen to an all-time low. You can't divorce if you never marry.

You aren't going to like the answer to the question, but the answer is Feminism. Specifically, because the Feminist movement was taken over by Marxists and started pushing for Marxist goals instead of equality. Karl Marx understood that you can't convert a functioning western democracy to Marxism, democracy is too strong and too free. Instead, you must first completely destroy all aspects of western society.

Marxists took over Feminism because they could use it as a platform to destroy marriage in western societies. That's literally their often-stated goal, though they pretend that it's "for the women" - except it's the women that WANT to be married, especially when they are older. But it's really GenX women who are experiencing the reality in big numbers, and most are too afraid to admit they were wrong, and too afraid of being "gender traitors" to warn younger women - who wouldn't want to listen anyway.

The birthrate is also falling off a cliff, and that's going to be a huge problem for single women, as there will be no Social Security with so few younger people working and paying in. South Korea is already experiencing this - women aren't able to retire because they have no retirement savings and the social program's are out of money because the birthrate has been so low there.

People think that they're going to retire and live comfortably like their Boomer parents, but Boomers already spent all the money, and GenX didn't have enough kids, and Millennials are having far fewer kids. That's a tax base disaster that is coming and can't be avoided.

Shizunk · Answer

Its a mix. Feminism, socialiam and other ideologies are the biggest influence though. People do what makes them think they can achieve status and recognition. Historically, a woman would be valued based on her ability to give birth to and take care of children.
And a man, even a wealthy one was judged on his ability to financially sustain a household.
Both would be pressured by society into never ever publicly breaking a marriage vow (though the definition was sometimes a bit flexible).
Now a woman must have a great income because it is "too risky" to skip that. What if her husband abandoned her? And if she decides to instead leave him on a whim, she doesn't need to crawl back to her family humiliated. She just asks for a government handout which is "normal".
Money>fun>stability>children.
What used to be very personally encouraged and discouraged by a whole lot of people you knew is now just your personal business and requires some extra bureaucratic procedure at worst. The stigma around bad choices was removed and at the same time people are encouraged to not trust the other, which is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The more we remind everyone how people are bad, unreliable and are going to cheat and leave you anyway, the more people will try to hedge their bets, the less they will fight when things inevitably get tough and the more entitled they may feel to an idealized pleasure.
Long story short, normalizing divorce leads to more divorce. People who value marriage and expect to succeed are more likely to stay. Both negative and positive pressures are weakened today in attempts to fight inequality.

BCA6010 · Answer

A doesn't necessarily matter, because what really matters is whether or not women actually want a family. A self-driven woman perfectly capable of taking care of herself isn't rejecting marriage because of it.

B is a minor contributor, a footnote at most.

C at face value isn't a big factor, but the related hookup/dating app culture is a huge factor. It has essentially turned dating and relationships into online shopping for disposable goods.

D also minor. MGTOW is pretty much a direct reaction to anti-male feminist extremism by people who largely are not and were not interested in marriage and families anyway.

E is actually the opposite of reality: it was much easier to have a single-earner household at pretty much any point in US history compared to now.

F I don't believe that's actually the case. Sex education has certainly not gotten "better" or had a major impact.

I'm voting C, but really it's a bit of most of these and also a major factor you left out: the culture itself. In the US, religion and religious values are on a downward slope. Pretty much all major religions promote strong family units and lifelong commitments, but as people distance themselves from those teachings and values, and embrace counteractive concepts such as the left/far left idea of dismantling the nuclear family, then marriage and procreation likewise go down. Right now, the only reason that the US population is increasing is because of immigration.

Anonymous · Answer

Its attributed to statistics done on the wrong scales as always.

Marriage rates are dow n because no one is getting married anymore. But the divorce rate out of the married ones is still high.
Divorce rate out of the whole population is lower since you need marriage to get a divorce.

And yes it's due to this false "empowerment" of women we keep seeing.
Women are told "don't get married strong women don't need men in their lives"
And so they don't until it's too late.
Go do a study on how many women in their 40's are lonely and miserable and the numbers will shock you.

Marriage has been so demonized by the media that those who do get married are called stupid for it.

But at the end of the day, regardless of what people had the freedom to do or not do in the 70's they were happier overall.
Freedom is important, but brain washing a generation into making destructive choices and living unhappy is a crime against humanity.

I_Am_Sazerac · Answer

Honestly its a mix of all your options. But the two glaring ones are MGTOW and the financial risk.

It is a good thing women are more independent, but there are even predators among women, and those women know the courts are still biased and know that other men will come to a woman's rescue if they whisper the right words in the right ears. They will find a man, cozy up, then either make false claims or divorce and take half to 80% of all the man's resources, leaving him destitute and broken while she enjoys the fruits of his labor, and repeats the action.

Men fear those types of women, but even if the woman they have isn't like that and is a genuinely good person, the woman can STILL take all of his resources, even if she has her own money, if the marriage doesn't work.

The courts are more biased against men in this regards and men are scared. Men do the same thing to women and can get away with it just as much, but as I mentioned, the court are more in favor.

In this regard, I see more domestic partnerships than a sealing marriage because both parties opted this rout for "just incase".

Exterminatore · Answer

The divorce rates are down because there are less intact marriages. Duh.

Marriages are down because men won’t marry odious feminist and dyke left wing shrews. Modern women have little to offer men and are utterly worthless.

The women won’t marry the men because they’ve spent decades emasculating them and turning them into man bun wearing, man purse having, sissified candy asses. Or have been busy creating a gynocentric society that is set up for women to succeed at the expense of men and and so for the majority of the rest of men who do not read the Vagina Monologues, they are losers. They live in their moms basements until their 30’s smoking pot daily and masturbating to porn daily while playing video games all day when they are not at their part time jobs or marching in some protest against big business.

Not to mention the west is in moral decline and marriage is not seen as necessary to have sex or children.

Additionally, in the case of a divorce, men will be left penniless and women leave the marriage with cash and prizes so it is dangerous for men to marry.

Why are you on here asking these questions anyway? Doesn’t your feminist ass have stuff to do with your bull dyke girlfriend because you can’t get a man?

ChrisMaster69 · Answer

Over here I think it’s down to less people bothering with the bollox of getting married.

There are also two schools of thought over the impact of lockdown on families as well.

one side is it pushed families back together as all in the house, parents spent more time with each other and with their kids, actually getting involved in each other’s lives.

the other side, says the above was a nightmare and exposed families to areas they did not want to admit they sucked at, as in having a relationship and being a family.

my positive view is that families came out of it with a better understanding of each other, what their kids actually want and need, what each other need and want.

often facing adversity together makes us stronger as a whole,

exitseven · Answer

Social media has stunted a lot of people in regards to making relationships With social media people "meet" hundreds or thousands of people but do not form any intimate relationships. As the age for people using social media gets younger, the issue becomes more pronounced.
Nobody puts in the time of effort to get to know somebody anymore and many people lack the skills to do that. The irony is that "social media" has just the opposite effect.

Oigit · Answer

I'd say that for a long time too much weight was put on marriage and for a while people have woken up to that. Going without food, shelter and sleep will kill you. Because all three are basic needs for our survival. But for a long time so much weight was put on getting married that it might as well be on the list as well. Now people are becoming aware that getting married isn't as important as it's made out to be. So people are perfect happy and content not getting married. People are also not willing to stick it out in a bad marriage for the same reason.

Jamie05rhs · Answer

Divorce rates increased dramatically during the second half of the 20th Century. Younger men (and women) in later generations saw this occurring, so many of them chose to avoid marriage entirely, because they didn't want to take the risk.
I am one of these people. I am pro-marriage, and I want to get married, and yet I am extremely cautious about it. Because I refuse to become another statistic like everyone else.

Anonymous · Answer

This so funny that how many men are butthurt because of Feminism. Women and men should be equal and have the same rights in the first place. MANY years women live in the society in which patriarchy exists. No men talked about it they were very content happy. They were dominating the women cheat them multiple times and come to the clean home and eat the meal their wives cooked to them. The women have no choice not to marry with them. Because women were not allowed to work now they are allowed to work and they can choose who to marry the traditional men who does not want to marry with Feminists, do they think that Feminists want to marry with them 😂 of course not. So there is not a problem. Answer of your question is mixture of the all choices i think. We can not give all the pressure to one choice. Everything can be the reason.

Bricealan · Answer

I'm thinking that MOST of the things you list are the causal factors. As for me, the "plague' has isolated me to the point of me living like a "monk' in a monastery. I do notice some 'easing' of the mask requirements here in Orange County, and I tend to get out more and be more social.

My one and only marriage, ended in a disaster that took me literally YEARS to recover from emotionally, and my present lady friend and I seem to negotiate the problems we see pretty well.

Breanna_nonbinary · Answer

The divorce rate is stupid. We only look at the conclusion that we draw from it. They say that 50% of marriages end in divorce. It’s shocking, I know. However if we look closer you’ll realize that that marriage can only end two ways: divorce or death. So basically 50% of marriages end in death.
This, like all scientific studies, can have a conclusion that is simplistic in nature usually that’s all that we hear. The marriage statistic doesn’t reveal the length of time people were married, the reason they divorced, if it was amicable, what the age they were married, if it is the first marriage etc. however those statistics can’t be sensationalized into a headline.
So anytime you hear about a study’s results keep in mind that it’s only one person’s interpretation of the raw data.

HellGeist · Answer

It's a confluence of factors. Could be all of the above.

For the record, I understand that Divorce rates are up. Not going down.

Marriage is indeed going down.

Part of the cause is Modern Feminism.

Thanks to the internet, guys are sharing their experiences and now Western women are not seen as marriage material as a generality among many men who have been through divorce or are products of divorce or who learn from eachother's pain and experiences.

I think the trend will continue. It's just natural blowback.

Eventually things have a way of balancing themselves out when extremes are reached.

It's a good thing in the short run, but long term it could lead to societal degradation, but I invest in crypto, not societal values, lmao.

HighValue · Answer

Divorce rates are down because there are less marriages. Can't get divorced when they aren't married in the first place.
Marriage rates are down because more men are aware that women can steal from them during divorce. (And no women do anything to get those laws changed so ALL women in the USA are complicit in it). The only way to prove that wrong is to get the abusive sexist divorce laws changed. I'm still waiting on that one. How many generations will it take for women to even get one single law changed to finally help men?

Anyways, it is possible to have a life long, exclusive relationship, live together, raise kids, etc. without ever getting legally married. No reason for the man to risk losing half the assets he worked for years to earn. If someone insists on marriage and won't offer to sign a prenuptial agreement it pretty much proves they are a thief trying to rip someone off. No prenup = no marriage.

Fuentes · Answer

I think it has a lot to do with the economy back then you see people finished high school and went to college and got married and could afford most of everything or some would finish high school and become a manager with good pay and be able to afford a family. These days everything is so sky rocketed high having a family puts a strain on the marriage and things never work out.

readyplayer001 · Answer

casual sex is too easy to access and a lot of people dont wanna put the time into relationships anymore. then you have others who at this point wanna stay to themselves. with the internet people are less social they feel talking to someone on line classifies as a relationship when they have never met or even kissed which to me is very odd. a myriad of things

Finchie40 · Answer

My guess is because less people are getting married these days , people have become more selfish these days and only really care about themselves , I blame a lot of it on social media brainwashing people’s heads to believe every man or female is a cheater or a whore. Sad world we live in

Razp_Sorbet · Answer

We learn from previous generations mistakes. Though my parents have been married for 25 years. I had friends who had divorced parents, half of my aunt's and uncles are divorced, Christmas in my family consists of my grandfather being in the same room as his girlfriend, his ex wife and his current wife (separated). We see what that situation does to people and we see it's not easy on them so we take our time to get married make sure the person is who we want to be with.

hahahmm · Answer

A few things.. the top 2 would be:

1. Men don't want to marry women they can't trust. Too many whorish women today.
2. Women want to marry up. The more money women earn and/or the less men make, the harder it is for that to happen.
2b. The flip side is that most men have no interest in marrying up.

Bluemax · Answer

Many or possibly all of those things you listed are probably contributing factors.

If pressed, I would say that both a decrease in people getting married and people waiting until they are older and better trained and educated before getting married are probably the greatest contributors.

t-8900 · Answer

I'm going to say the quicker and easier access to sex and fast paced lifestyle. Sex and money seem to be what a lot of people are interested in. It's getting harder to find serious commitment. Normalizing hook ups and a lot of these dating apps aren't helping the situation.

ODC2112 · Answer

If you look at it from a macro point of view, many behaviors cannot be understood. Divorces are and remain high in segments of the population without tertiary education. They decline in tertiary-educated segments of the population, where marriages tend to be more stable and more frequent. When both have tertiary education, marriages tend to be more robust, for two reasons greater communication and greater economic well-being and greater risk of being alone. Most of the divorces are done by couples who tend to be young, and it is the woman who asks for a divorce. With women graduating from college much more easily than men, women marry late, marrying late increases the risk of being left alone in the event of a divorce, thus in itself diminishes divorces.

cuzimbored21 · Answer

a) people are generally marrying at much older ages nowadays. Studies have found that people who marry in their late teens/early 20s are much more likely to end in divorce.
b) people are generally marrying less. Less marriage = less divorces.

KingofCups · Answer

Lol divorce rates are down because none of the men in America are trying to get married.

Some people are even begin to doubt the validity of 'having a family'. I can't remember who exactly said it. It went something like this:

"Women are always looking for a slice of the fresh baked pie coming out of the oven, but show me a woman who's willing to walk into the kitchen and bake the pie with guy who hasn't made it yet." It's no wonder why these whole pie men treat women so badly. Have some faith in the men who are trying to build, give them shot.

I wonder how Elon Musk must feel on first dates. He probably just asks them straight up, so are you into me or my 300Billions?'

grega239 · Answer

No fault laws. Getting divorced just because is dumb.

I don't know why mgtow is an option since its existance is a reaction to feminisms power grabbing and the horrible divorce and family laws in America.

Women becoming more independent is only a problem when said independence comes with consequences, which women seem to be unable to handle and start hysterically crying about an imaginary oppression and getting tge government to bestow all sorts of privilages to combat said "oppression".

Also, what do men get out of it?

Mangospacho · Answer

People just aren’t getting married now. It’s not that the divorce rate is down because more marriages are lasting longer but because the marriage rate is dropping. Couples just live together now instead of get married because it’s not frowned upon like it used to be in the 70s/80s

Anonymous · Answer

A combination of many things, some you listed. But most probably due to lack of spare money - other priorities take place first, and then there’s a change of values, people can be in happy relationships without marriages now. The only reason I see to marriage these days is ensuring your family all have the same name once you have children.

sage2021 · Answer

Weddings cost way too much to have. The internet where people are hooking up but not getting married. Divorce cost way too much anymore, and people can't afford to get divorced.

cosmicallyinclined · Answer

All of them but particularly a mix of A & E. In my opinion, i feel younger people don’t see marriage as the next big step like our parents did. so there's a lot less of the need to settle down and definitely a lot less need to have kids.

TrueConfection · Answer

I believe it's a combination. Mainly women becoming more independent and having careers, cohabitation being widely accepted and even encouraged, premarital sex acceptance, less desire for having many children, and probably a few more reasons.

boggboss · Answer

Because people as a whole are changing people are no longer willing to go through moments of hard times or unhappiness in a relationship they will simply move on plus the advent of getting a new relationship easy plays a massive part

Mac-One · Answer

Could it be because fewer couples are getting married; just living together?

TwinkleLily5 · Answer

Some reason—Because the cost of living went up and its cheaper to keep them if there is no prenup. Dating is usually a waste of time and energy and so they settle for the spouse they have.

katiesmuff · Answer

Covid has caused it! The county courthouses have been closed due to covid and not open to hear cases. Covid also caused social gatherings to be shutdown so people didn't have the opportunity to meet and end up cheating leading to divorce.

genericname85 · Answer

There's a big variance of economical and socio structural reasons. Birth control, female emancipation and many more. The one reason you said is actually the opposite. Inflation went way up and wage increases didn't. So now there's a situation where the single breadwinner model fails, cause a man alone does not earn enough anymore to have a standard comparable to that of earlier generations. Every generation after the boomers in fact was financially less well off.

cookiecrusher · Answer

Women have gotten more vocal in social media about using men, for food dates, for money and lifestyle gains and half the mans worth.

Men too, sharing their misfortune with women on social media.

Obviously not all women are like that. While a big percetage are.

LegendaryIcon · Answer

Cheating

The number one reason a divorce happens, is cheating

my cousins wife cheated on him. they're divorced

the girl i currently like, her ex accused her of cheating, when it was him who was the actual one cheating. they're divorcing

Hispanic-Cool-Guy · Answer

Has to do with women independence. Lots of women stayed with men back then out of necessity while others couldn't deal with it no more and also divorce. Now, most women are with men because they actually like and love their men.

Toldol2 · Answer

I love your input , and I would add this ; The rise of personnal development trend , the individual needs to be complete first.

Anonymous · Answer

Feminism - It Has Liberated Men.  By insisting that women are physically equal to men and do not need men.  So men have taken that to mean that they no longer have to marry, they can take jobs that give them just enough earnings to be comfortable, by not having to support a family, to not do killing amounts of overtime working more hours than living, take on debt through mortgages, they can pursue any hobby, just by being a bachelor and interacting or not with women as the mood takes them.

jerdanro · Answer

I think a lot of it has to do with how much more common no strings attached sex is. It has become much easier to fullfill your sexual desires without getting to know the person you are with. So more and more people opt out of committed relationships. Sex is easy, love is hard.

doe9de · Answer

The answer is in your own title partly anyway. Divorce rates are down because marage rates are down. Nobody can get divorced if nobody is getting married. As for why marriage rates are down all leave that up to someone else to figure out.

jewishgirlchild · Answer

Marriages today, relationships based on the man's money and the woman's "perfect" body somehow end in divorce because there is no love or respect between them.

jasco · Answer

I can sorta see how women having more money would make a relationship work better but at the same time i think its more due to no longer having to get married just to live

Dragonpurple · Answer

With so few getting married anymore, means divorces are going to drop too.

20yearsolder · Answer

Less marriages in general? People are living together nowadays?

Markieboy71 · Answer

I think it's a decline in morals that is destroying us. I know that we are happy when goo D comes our way but we are so concerned about what others are doing that we are not being individuals. We are growing dumber not smarter because we destroy our on then help foriegn countries prosper and build big empowers those that teach to cheat there employers

Static_In_The_Attic · Answer

In stores if sales are down it’s probably because people are buying less & when it comes to divorce rates being down maybe less people are getting married.

DaveJord · Answer

A combination of all of these above... redefining marriage. Probably less people less likely to marry these days... legally its a huge financial risk.

Wester1967 · Answer

Women are unmarriagiable. It has to be a BDSM master/slave relationship now and I personally want no part of it. Good luck to the fools who bite on that BS.

Razor8 · Answer

Men are more cautious about marriage because we don't want to lose half our shit. Women on the other hand can't find viable men because the women with good paying jobs won't 'date down'. Its kinda ironic actually from both sides.

Still-alive · Answer

i think its just a better understanding of each other and understanding what boundaries are and how to respect them. Better communication

TexasRed95 · Answer

I choose sex education but really I think it's that less people are getting married now. It seems that way at least.

Djaay · Answer

Because of a mirade of UNGODLY beliefs that are practiced and performed by those of the majority who worship themselfs. ( INDIVIDUALISM ) Is the main societal extremitie that gave birth to the denial of GODS commanded commandments.

MJtheCoach · Answer

Because men aren’t getting married and men don’t want to get married. For obvious reasons! And I don’t blame them.  Men became wise!  And women are married to their phones. The end.

Anonymous · Answer

All of those things plus atheism. It makes sense to religious people who want to have the approval of God or whatever, but to many atheist (men mainly) it’s just a ring and a piece of paper.

Anonymous · Answer

1. Marriage is outdated 2. Men dont have a weird fantasy related to getting married... nor getting r*ped like women  3. Women think they can wait till 30-40 to get married which isn't true, men dont want them when theyre that old and used

Uptowngirl88 · Answer

Women have gotten smarter. They've gotten hip to men's games and choose peace over a man's drama.

disgustingweebtrash · Answer

All of the above amongst other reasons  Society is generally low trust now anyway and rightfully so - let it collapse :)

Marriage and divorce rates are down to levels not seen since the 70s. What do you attribute most to this decline?

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Why do you think marriage and divorce rates are declining?

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