In his article, “Economic forces making U.S. men less appealing partners”, David Baer connects a declining marriage rate in the U.S. to the low rate of manufacturing jobs available to men. Baer claims that because there isn’t many manufacturing jobs for men to take part in, they are not making enough money to seem attractive to women and therefore are not getting married. An interesting connection that reflects this claim is how towns with low manufacturing jobs also have low fertility and marriage rates. On the contrary, towns with high manufacturing jobs have a higher marriage rate.
The article takes into consideration other things that influence the decline in marriage as it relates to employment and marriage. It is stated that as a society,
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Here we are faced with the troubles and issues of unemployment and marriage. In this particular article, the claim is that unemployment causes a low rate in marriage. Baer recognizes the nationwide issue of more men being unemployed and he affirms that it is partly because society fails to accept men working in less harsh conditions which leads to them not having jobs. Baer also points out that women are becoming more independent and less likely to need a man to support them, which leads to a low marriage rate. Low marriage rates can also be accounted for the acceptance of women having individual rights as well as the “normalization of divorce”. We must recognize that the times have changed and women now have more freedom and individual significance. Both laws as well as social expectations have changed. It is now more acceptable to not marry or to divorce if a marriage isn’t satisfying. All of these factors contribute to the difference of marriage rates from the 1900’s to now. Therefore, we know that economic forces making U.S. men less appealing partners is not the cause of low marriage rates but rather it is a correlation. There definitely may be a relationship between men being financially stable and qualifying as a good candidate for marriage, but it is certainly not the