By Nikki Shewmaker
The ceremony, the celebration, and the dress – they are all a part of a beautiful wedding, and even more importantly, something most girls have been planning since they were young. A wedding, and of course, the ensuing marriage were just a part of the plan; it was the threshold to the next chapter of a young woman’s life. If a marriage did not happen, the woman 
could be labeled a spinster, or worse.
However, in the past few decades, women’s views on marriage and of themselves have rapidly evolved. What was once considered a necessity is no longer necessarily a priority to the modern woman. As of 2011, the US Census Bureau found that less than half of all adults are currently married and a large part of that is due to women’s changing views on the institution of marriage.
Women married at a much younger age – 20 years old compared to 26 years or older today. Over the last three decades the number of females who have not married between the ages of 25-29 rose 20 per cent. A large part of this is due to the modern woman’s focus on attending college and pursuing a career and becoming established in her chosen field. The National Survey of Family Growth done by the Center for Disease Control found that just 11 per cent of women with a bachelor’s degree or higher were married. Being financially stable and leading an independent life has become a priority. The same study showed that women who did not pursue education after high school were more likely to marry (28 per cent) in that younger age bracket and consider marriage and starting a family a priority.
Another factor is that women realize what the commitment of marriage actually means. It is not easy and it is an endeavour that requires constant effort, there is always the chance that it will not work out, and with divorce rates – roughly 45 per cent of all marriages end in divorce – on the rise, it is making women in both the United States and Canada reevaluate their relationships and whether or not marriage is something they want to pursue. Divorce no longer holds the stigma it once did, but on that note, it also has caused women to realize that they need to be more discerning in their decision-making, because the dissolution of the marriage is a possibility. Women are marrying for love more than ever before, but they are also realizing that despite their best intentions, love does not always last. Therefore, more women are choosing to live alone or cohabit with their significant others – up to 61 per cent of women have cohabited in the last decade – which offers many of the niceties of a marriage without the legal burden.
While this trend is happening globally- in Asia, a study by The Economist found that women are putting off marriage indefinitely (with the vast majority not getting married until after 30) – countries dominated by strong religious ties and strict laws are seeing this progression to a lesser degree. Marriage and building a family are considered strong priorities in places like the Middle East, Africa and many of the smaller European nations. In Southern Asia, in Bangladesh, over 36 per cent of women are married before they reach age 20 and a staggering 92 per cent of women are married before age 40. In the Middle East, in general, specific statistics are not kept on women, but where arranged marriages are commonplace and divorce is hard to come by (and often illegal), it’s safe to say the marriage rate is higher than the rates of western countries.
The evolution of views presents a unique contrast between women of the previous generation and women of the current generation. As women become more and more prominent in a male-dominated workforce and society, women of the previous generation are starting to see the results of all the motions for independence they started, but they are still more likely to see marriage as a necessity rather than a commodity. This isn’t to say that modern women never want to get married; in fact, it is still a goal for the vast majority, it just is not the only goal.
