Marriage and Social Inequality It has been claimed that in the future, differences between married-couple families and other families will continue to be a growing source of social inequality. One reason that this is untrue is the changing landscape of American society; namely, the gradual replacement of the older percentage of the population (those over age 55) with younger individuals. Older people tend towards having more conservative political views, as well as being more religious than younger generations (Cohen 473). Their conservatism means that they generally believe in the 1960’s gold standard of the American family: a married heterosexual couple living with only their biological children (Cohen 457). They consider modern diversity among families (where this traditional ‘ideal’ makes up less than half of family types today) to be detrimental to the institution of marriage. And since the older age demographic occupies up most public and political positions, they have a disproportionate amount of say and influence on both law and public opinion. Their tendency to be more conservative is reflected in policies that are aimed at promoting married-couple families, such as the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, which encouraged “the formation and maintenance of two-parent families” under the premise that “marriage is the foundation off a successful society” (Cohen 293). However, many of these initiatives, including TANF, fell flat; the services provided by the program were not shown to have any effect on either relationship quality or if the couple in question even remained together (Cohen 294). The failure of programs like TANF is due to the decline of marriage in America in general, which has numerous reasons, none of which TANF addressed.
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These reasons are all related to the younger generations who should, right about now, be getting married (according to marriage age statistics). However, they simply are not; or at least, they are getting married less often, marrying later in life than previous generations, and getting divorced more often than ever before (Cohen 262). Culture is one reason: younger people are more individualistic and less family-oriented, and combined with a more relaxed attitude towards marriage, younger people today simply desire marriage less. Economics is another, because marriage is no longer necessary to merge monetary resources. Whatever the reasons, today’s youth simply do not hold the institution of marriage in high regard. Naturally, this younger generation which values marriage significantly less than its predecessors (for reasons which will not shift, ensuring consistence) will eventually come to occupy the positions of power currently held by older generations. What this means for the future is a growing call for reform of laws and informal behaviors which favor married-couple families. With law- and policy-makers who hold more liberal beliefs themselves, laws will change to give far less favor to married-couple families, allowing more diverse family types to have more social and economic equality. Laws which give married couples benefits like tax breaks, government benefits, employment benefits, etc., will change to favor married couples less, putting them on par with other types of families. In addition to the natural decline of public favor of traditional married-couple families because of cultural evolution, a growing drive to actively dismantle this dominant family form will further accelerate the downward trend. The heterosexual married-couple dynamic usually entails a
These reasons are all related to the younger generations who should, right about now, be getting married (according to marriage age statistics). However, they simply are not; or at least, they are getting married less often, marrying later in life than previous generations, and getting divorced more often than ever before (Cohen 262). Culture is one reason: younger people are more individualistic and less family-oriented, and combined with a more relaxed attitude towards marriage, younger people today simply desire marriage less. Economics is another, because marriage is no longer necessary to merge monetary resources. Whatever the reasons, today’s youth simply do not hold the institution of marriage in high regard. Naturally, this younger generation which values marriage significantly less than its predecessors (for reasons which will not shift, ensuring consistence) will eventually come to occupy the positions of power currently held by older generations. What this means for the future is a growing call for reform of laws and informal behaviors which favor married-couple families. With law- and policy-makers who hold more liberal beliefs themselves, laws will change to give far less favor to married-couple families, allowing more diverse family types to have more social and economic equality. Laws which give married couples benefits like tax breaks, government benefits, employment benefits, etc., will change to favor married couples less, putting them on par with other types of families. In addition to the natural decline of public favor of traditional married-couple families because of cultural evolution, a growing drive to actively dismantle this dominant family form will further accelerate the downward trend. The heterosexual married-couple dynamic usually entails a