Two Tales of Marriage
September 6th, 2008 by SocProf and tagged Gender, Health, Health Care, Marriage and Families, Population, Public Policy, Social Inequalities, Social Institutions, Social Privilege, Social Structure
First stop, Nigeria:
In addition to the concern raised here, there seem to be other problems. One is the assumption of faithfulness, that neither partner will cheat on his/her spouse. Also, it does not seem to take into account the patterns of sexual activities delineated by Elizabeth Pisani. And what about polygamous marriages? Are these HIV-marriages (for lack of a better expression) supposed to be strictly monogamous marriages? And what about children? Are these couples supposed to remain child-free? There is no way of enforcing any of these things (and should they?), so, it remains to be seen whether this scheme has any validity in terms of reducing the spread of HIV.
Next stop, Germany, via Le Monde, it would appear that Germany is experiencing a marked decline in marriage and an increase in cohabitation. Over the last 10 years, the number of marriages declined by roughly 14% and cohabitation increased by 34% with a corresponding 2% decline in the divorce rate.
According to Bremen University Sociologist Johannes Huinink, this trend is comparable to that of other European countries, and largely due to the increase in women in the workforce and their increased financial independence. In addition, legal changes have made it easier for non-married couples to find housing as penalizing laws were repealed.
However, this is not a uniform trend within Germany: cohabitation is very widespread in the former Democratic Republic, largely because of the legacy of the communist regime (almost 60% of children grow up in non-married families), whereas in the former Federal Republic, the majority of couples with children are married. By and large, though, cohabitation has become the favorite for couples without children. These couples may marry when they want to have children or just had them. As it stands, 68% of non-married couples are child-free.
The German fiscal system, though, is still geared toward the declining, never traditional, family form of the husband/breadwinner and housewife and married couples still benefit from tax advantages. This is one form of social privileges that has not caught up with the reality on the ground and may also explain why couples do marry when they have children or think of having them.
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