Evolving Matrimony

FIRS THE FIRST TIME, as far as we know, the number of single women who have never been married outnumbers the number of married women in the United States. let's just call that a good thing, and leave it at that. No reason to go negative, and panic. Let it be. it is what it is, as we like to say. God bless the free market of mating. The most probably explanation is that as more and more women pursue careers unavailable to women of previous generations, more of them chose career over marriage and family, at least at the beginning. For instance, even as we speak, there are more females than males in American law schools. Our legal future is very feminine. There is no reason to suspect that the very institution of marriage is easing out of existence, a victim of broader social evolution. In fact, it seems reasonable to believe that, considering how many social needs the institution of marriage in its traditional forms, fulfills, that it will always be with us, to a certain extent. But it may be that alternatives are coming into being, as society changes, and becomes more tolerant of all manner of diversity. Gay marriage is now the law of the American landscape. Being single is no longer semi-scandalous, as it indeed once was in Victorian America. Children are more expensive than ever, and the human race has a greater number already than ever. Economic factors can affect the marriage and birth rate. It may even be that forms of marriage, such as multiple partner or interlocking marriage arrangements lay ahead. If memory serves, there is a Robert Heinlein novel in which a whole group of people are intermarried with each other, in what Heinlein called a "line marriage". You'd have to ask him more about the details, but since its in a book, its real. You just never know. The only sure thing it that, like everything else, the future of marriage will differ considerably from the present.