Lecture 1

1
Lecture 1 2Andrew CherlinMarriage, Divorce,
Remarriage

• April 16, 2008

2
Cherlins Book

• Classic in American family demography
• What does it mean to have a higher divorce rate
  since the 1960s?
• Baby boom?
• A sharp decline of never married in the 1950s.
  High fertility rate
• Another big change an increase of never
  married ever since. Low fertility rate
• Anomaly

3
Cohabitation

• Cohabitation leads to higher rate of divorce
• Cohabitation is a learning system
• Selection bias
• Cohabitation linked to lower education
• Financial aspect
• Increase of cohabitation by college graduates

4
Remarriage

• Why higher divorce rate?
• Lack of institutionalization of roles
• Selection bias

5
Harvard-Yale Marriage Study

• Results?
• Problem predicting future trends based on the
  patterns from the past
• Why became a hot issue?
• Increase of working women
• Fear

6
Gary Becker

• Specialization theory family as a trading zone
• Male and female role difference
• Division of labor ? Higher efficiency
• Problems
• Gender essentialism
• Who is more advantaged in the trade?