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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JUNE
10, 1986
pertains mainly to the huge cohort of baby-boomer women, the
victims of what demographers call the "marriage squeeze."
Between 1946 and 1956 each year's new crop of births was
greater than the one before.
Since most women marry men
several years their senior, baby boomers looking to pair up
with even slightly older men far outnumber the available pool.
"If we tried to match each woman born in
1950
with a man three
years older, we would come out with millions of women left
over•••" [Berkeley University].
And the older a woman gets, the worse her chances of finding a
suitable partner.
One reason is that divorced men remarry
women four to seven years younger.
Factor in a gay-male
population estimated to be 13 percent--three Times that of
lesbians--and you have�numbers game women can't win.
Even more unsettling than the statistics, however, are the
long-term social implications.
The study reflects a time of
transition•••for the institution of marriage itself.
Many
career women no longer need husbands for economic security.
Nor, thanks to the sexual revolution, do they need to marry for
sex. Indeed, as the marriage rate has declined, the number of
people cohabitTiig--"Eas been rising "'"sharply, quadrupling since
1970. But while couplesc'ontinue to get together, they seem to
have trouble connecting.... Even though men say they respect
women's career aspirations, many openly long for full-time
wives and mothers••••
Perhaps no one was more stunned by the reaction to the study
than the authors--Yale sociologists Neil G. Bennett and
Patricia H. Craig, and Harvard economist David E. Bloom--who
disclosed their findings in an interview with a small
Connecticut paper. The report was widely misunderstood, which
is not surprising given that it is still unpublished. For one
thing, 8 out of
10
female college graduates will marry, so the
researchers are admittedly "talking about aselect group of
women."•••
The study's main message--that delaying marriage may ultimately
mean forgoing it--clearly came as a slap in the face to this
generation's best and brig1itest women. "Wnen you�katrneri
who don't marry, you're often looking at the bottom of the
barrel," says Berkeley sociologist Nancy Chodorow.
"When you
look at the women who don't marry, you're looking at the cream
of the crop."
Career patterns are mainly to blame.
Up and
comers are expected to work hardest in thefr 30s; thatthose
are a!so"""the years ac:areer woman wouTa wed ana"'""nav'ecliildren
is her tougn luck•• ;:
-- ---
Most men would like to meet somebody and marry•.• but their
feelings of self-worth come primarily from work.
For women,
however, marriage seems to be far more central to their basic
identities.
Even now, many singles, including those without
any husband prospects in sight, cannot imagine never marrying