What is happening is dramatic and the RW can rant on and on-=-and ruin many lives-----but in the end I do think the trend will continue.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0130/p08s02-comv.htmlCommentary > The Monitor's View
from the January 30, 2007 edition
Finding family in a nonmarried world
As more US women live without a spouse, the idea of family can change – and expand.
The Monitor's View
Noah's ark has long served as one metaphor for American society, with a majority of men and women pairing off two by two and going together through life. But now, statistically at least, that image is changing. The US is becoming a nation of singles.
A new analysis of US Census data finds that less than half of American women – 49 percent – are currently married and living with their spouse. For men, the figure is about 53 percent. By contrast, in 1960 two-thirds of women were married.
Critics who challenge the new figures note that they include girls between the ages of 15 and 19 – a group not typically married in these modern days – and women who are married but not currently living with their husband, as in the case of many military wives. But even allowing for those exceptions, the trend has reached what experts call a tipping point. No longer, they say, is marriage the primary institution in many people's lives.
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If the ranks of singles continue to grow, they could influence everything from housing to workplace policies to retirement patterns.
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Perhaps the most troubling statistic on singles is the one showing that about 40 percent of first-time births in the US are to unmarried mothers. Despite women's growing economic independence, children still benefit from the security of a two-parent home, protected by that most pro-child institution, marriage..................