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Marriage rates have fallen due to economic and social changes since the 1970s.

Cohabitation has increased as couples prioritize love over financial security in marriage.

"Benevolent attribution" can enhance relationship satisfaction amidst stress.

In 1976, 73 percent of male high school seniors and 84 percent of females told researchers they expected to get married. In 2023, the percentage of females had plummeted to 64 percent. The expectations of males had decreased as well, but by a smaller margin. Another study found that between 1970 and 2021, the percentage of women aged 40 to 44 who were married slipped from 82 percent to 62 percent.

In the book For Better and Worse, Stephanie Coontz (the director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families and author, among other books, of Marriage: A History) sets this trend in the context of economic opportunities, laws, government policies, and assumptions about romance, gender, and sex in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries. She also provides an informative analysis of “the gradual erosion, and in many cases, outright collapse” of factors that pushed people into marriage, determined the role each partner should play, stigmatized divorce, and penalized individuals who remained single.

Designed to protect delicate women, the patriarchal........

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