Women: Marriage Reconsidered

Marriage Reconsidered

Careers have been proving more attractive to women than early marriage. More than half of all women now work, and the median age of a woman at her first marriage has increased by two years in the past decade, a huge jump compared with the typically glacial pace of demographic change. Last week, however, the Census Bureau announced a reversal in that trend. New findings show that the median age of first-time brides registered its first drop in 20 years, falling to 23.1 years from a record 23.3 in 1985.

Sociologists caution that the decline is not a sign that women...

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