Two Decades of Family Change: The Shifting Economic Foundations of Marriage

By Megan Sweeney. American Sociological Review, 2002

620 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Has the relationship between economic prospects and marriage formation in the United States changed in recent decades? To answer this question, a discrete-time event-history analysis was conducted using data from multiple cohorts of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience. Among women, results indicate growth in the importance of earnings for marriage formation between the early baby-boom cohort (born between 1950 and 1954) and late baby-boom cohort (born between 1961 and 1965). Evidence of cohort change in the relationship between men's economic prospects and marriage, however, is limited. Despite important racial differences in the economic and attitudinal context of marriage, key results are generally similar for whites and for African Americans. Taken together, these findings imply that men and women are growing to resemble one another with respect to the relationship between economic prospects and marriage, although this convergence is driven primarily by changing patterns of marriage among women. These results are largely supportive of Oppenheimer's career-entry theory of marriage and suggest that Becker's specialization and trading model of marriage may be outdated.

Subfields: Demography, Gender Studies, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d4c1c25e7a3efdab9905dfc161fdd2c02d151adf

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Citations in the corpus

Is There a Male Marital Wage Premium? New Evidence from the United States (2018, background): “It is a well-established fact that men with higher wages marry at higher rates (see Oppenheimer 2000, 2003; Oppenheimer, Kalmijn, and Lim 1997; Sweeney 2002; Schneider [2011] shows a positive association with men’s wealth).”
Gender Equity and Fertility in Italy and Spain (2009, background): “US evidence supports this assertion: employed US women are now more likely to marry than unemployed women (Sweeney, 2002), and US marriage rates have been declining at a faster rate among the least-educated women (Moffitt, 2000).”
Serial Cohabitation and the Marital Life Course (2008, positive): “Moreover, recent data releases allow us to track cohabitation to specific partners over time and to identify respondents involved in prior cohabiting and marital relationships (for extended discussion, see Sweeney, 2002).”
"Everything's There Except Money": How Money Shapes Decisions to Marry among Cohabitors. (2005, background): “That is, people with higher education and better economic prospects are more likely to become married, to stay married, and to have children within marriage (e.g., Carlson, McLanahan, & England, 2004; Lichter et al., 1992; Mare & Winship, 1991; McLaughlin & Lichter, 1997; Oppenheimer, 2000; Oppenhei”
"His" and "Her" Marriage Expectations: Determinants and Consequences (2005, background): “…effects of women’s economic status on marriage are mixed, but studies that focused on minority and low-income populations often found that women’s education and earnings are just as important as men’s in determining whether a couple can afford to marry (McLaughlin & Lichter, 1997; Sweeney, 2002).”
Women's economic standing, marriage timing, and cross-national contexts of gender (2003, methodology): “In such countries, both men and women are positively evaluated in the marriage market on their ability to make economic contributions (Sweeney, 2002).”
Is Traditional Gender Ideology Associated with Sex-Typed Mate Preferences? A Test in Nine Nations (2006, background): “Moreover, women's economic prospects have become a positive predictor of their marriage prospects in the United States in recent decades, with men and women demonstrating similar positive relations between their earnings and marriage (Sweeney, 2002).”