Even with its long and vaunted history in the U.S., marriage as the be-all and end-all of relationships is less of a goal than it was half a century ago. Glamour magazine recently surveyed 3,250 people (both men and women) about marriage and divorce — and women have the most progressive attitudes toward the institution.
The new way of thinking doesn’t belong just to a vocal minority: Most women surveyed said that marriage is outdated:
- 51 percent of women under 30 – and 46% of women overall – say the institution is becoming outdated. Men are more traditional, a full 58% believe the institution is timeless.
- Nearly one in three women in our survey says she’d feel fine going through the rest of her life single.
- 59 percent of women say divorce is healthy if two people fall out of love.
That certainly backs up recent articles by Kate Bolick for The Atlantic and Maura Kelly for The Daily, about more and more women choosing to forgo partners/redefine marriage, or live separately from their spouses, respectively.
Not only that, but cheating also doesn’t have the weight that it used to:
- Only 36% of women ages 19 to 29 would divorce their husband if he strayed even once –and more than a quarter overall say that sex outside marriage doesn’t have to ruin a relationship. Again, men are more traditional, 42% of men in their twenties would divorce if a partner cheated just once.
What do you think? Do you side with the poll respondents or against them? Tell us below!
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