[Linda22937]

Even as recently as the 50’s, girls pretty much got married shortly after they left school. (Remember, this was before Women’s Lib; girls were expected to stop working when they got married.) Guys were usually considered marriageable once they had enough work experience or other assets to support a family, which might have been in their teens or much later. If they got married before that point, there was a certain amount of disapproval, especially if the couple had to live with the parents. Divorce was very unusual; couples considered it their responsibility to stay married, making whatever accommodations and adjustments were necessary, except for very serious problems. (I was 18 and my husband 23 when we married in 1961. We’re still together, and still happy.) A hundred years ago, many girls got married even earlier, as soon as they were capable of performing an adult’s work. This was especially true in rural/pioneer communities. Again, the prospective husbands were expected to be able to support a family. This led to some marriages with very unequal ages. But very, very few of these marriages ended in divorce, it just ‘wasn’t done,’ and was sometimes legally impossible. No matter how bad the marriage was (and it was sometimes very bad), people stayed married until one of them died. Today, both men and women can have careers, and both often go to school well beyond their teens. Being married before you’re done with school can be a real hassle, and many such marriages don’t last because the people grow apart. I think this is one of the main reasons why the average newlywed is older now. You really need to be done with school before you can figure out who you are and where you’re going. Another reason for later marriage, of course, is that it’s much more acceptable now to spend some years ‘looking around’ before one settles down. And there is so little stigma associated with divorce now that people often break up a marriage for reasons that others find trivial, or for things like ‘personal fulfillment’ which was unheard of as a reason for divorce a few decades back.

User Detail :  

Name : Linda22937, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 62, City : Small town in upstate, State : NY, Country : United States, Occupation : Computer Engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

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