Blog 3

Sociologists refer to an institution as an organization built on rules, customs, laws. Coontz points out that marriage used to be the only institution that organized roles and purposes along sex lines. Now he says that there are other options, and these other options have made marriage more of a choice than a necessity, and less people feel the necessity to choose to marry. Coontz says that divorce is a big factor for the deinstitutionalization of marriage, but to try to convince people that they should stay in marriages as a means to reinstitutionalize it, he disagrees. He also disagrees with the reproductive evolution. The technology available now takes away the human aspect to child conception and bearing. He also disagrees with the weak sense of comitment engendered in today's view on marriage. He discusses how it is much more binding agreement to buy a car than it is to marry someone.
According to Harris and Waite, it is beneficial for men and women to get married because they have more meaningful sex. Financially married men seem to make more than single men, but married women seem to make less than single women because they have to cut back on work time to care for children. Women are less likely to succeed in the working world when married, but they are also better off married in a sexist society. The authors are saying that marriages with two workers seem to be more equal, but it also affects the fertility.
According to Brown, for young adults who have never married and have no children, cohabitation is an alternative to being single or a stage in the courtship process that leads
to marriage. There is also mounting evidence that the purpose of cohabitation may vary
by racial-ethnic group. Whites are most likely to marry, suggesting that cohabitation serves as a prelude to marriage for them. Blacks and Hispanics, cohabitation appears to be a substitute for marriage.
Marriage has become a choice, what sociologists call a selection choice. This has a huge affect on the outcome of marriage and the arrangements within a marriage. This means that people usually choose to marry people who are compatible with their own wants and needs (i would also like to make clear that this is not always the case). A positive selection can lead to a very fulfilling, equitable, fruitful marriage.