Volume 15 - Article 10 | Pages 311–328  

A gender perspective on preferences for marriage among cohabitating couples

By Anne Reneflot

Abstract

This paper addresses the sex differences in cohabiters’ marriage preferences, which have received very little attention in the family literature. According to Norwegian survey data from 1996, cohabiting men are more hesitant to marry than cohabiting women. For example, childless male cohabiters are more worried than their female partner that another lifestyle will be expected after a marriage, and they voice more doubt about the value of the relationship.
This could mean that the men generally are more individualistically oriented and therefore more attracted to single life than the women. In-depth interviews support this, and also suggest that men are less willing to yield to a normative pressure to marry. On the other hand, women were more concerned with the costs of the wedding.

Author’s Affiliation

• Anne Reneflot - Folkehelseinstituttet (Norwegian Institute of Public Health), Norway EMAIL

Similar articles in Demographic Research

Work–family balance during the pandemic: Longitudinal evidence from 27 European countries
Volume 55 - Article 22    | Keywords: COVID-19, family-to-work balance, gender, longitudinal analysis, resilience, work-to-family balance

The impact of reducing welfare obstacles on union formation and dissolution among the unemployed: Evidence from the Finnish Basic Income Experiment
Volume 55 - Article 21    | Keywords: cohabitation, family dynamics, Finland, income, marriage, union dissolution, welfare

Changing roles of marriage and family status for labor migration? The case of rural China
Volume 55 - Article 5    | Keywords: cohort trends, event history analysis, gender, labour migration, rural China

Resilience or social reproduction? Parental job loss and children’s prosocial development and caregiving after the Great Recession
Volume 55 - Article 1    | Keywords: caregiving, gender, Great Recession, prosocial behaviour, resilience, social reproduction

Fertility timing and the birth squeeze
Volume 54 - Article 40    | Keywords: birth squeeze, cyclical populations, fertility, marriage, marriage squeeze, stable population