The whole marriage-and-2.5-children fantasy is less popular than ever—particularly among teenage girls. Last week, the Pew Research Center released an analysis of data from the University of Michigan, which says that the percentage of female high school seniors who plan to one day get married has significantly dipped over the past 30 years.
In 1993, 83% of girls surveyed said they saw marriage in their future, notably higher than the 76% of boys who felt the same. But over the past three decades, while the percentage of young men who say they plan to get married has barely changed (it now sits just two points lower at 74%), the attitude shift among young women has been far more dramatic. Now, only 61% say they intend to be married one day.
One reason for this decline is a dwindling amount of certainty in young women's responses. 31% of the girls surveyed responded that they "don't know" whether they one day want to be married, in comparison to 30 years ago, when only 12% were similarly unsure.
What sets this study apart from the many other reports that paint Gen Z as largely anti-marriage is the gender gap in the results. The difference between how young men and young women responded is stark, and has been the main point of discussion about the research online. Commenters have expectedly resorted to playing the blame game to identify the root cause of this ideological gap. |
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