economics, marriage and social change

In another discussion elsewhere a claim was made that the mid-20th century in the West was an unusual period of history because at that time monogamy was socially enforced and marriage and children just fell into place for most men. He made the further claim that the Sexual Revolution changed all that and created a situation in which marriage and having children are not achievable goals for a very significant proportion of men.

I think there’s some truth to the claim. I think however that what made the mid-20th century unique was that it was a time in which most men could get decent well-paid secure jobs. Secure being the really important factor. For the only time in human history most men were very attractive marriage propositions for women.

The crucial change was not the Sexual Revolution but the disappearance of those decent well-paid jobs and the ending of job security. And bear in mind that job security has largely disappeared for many lower middle-class men as well as working class men.

Women have to be hardheaded when it comes to marriage. If a man does not have at least a reasonably decent wage and more crucially if he does not have a secure job it is simply reckless for a woman to regard him as husband material. You can’t blame women for that. If a woman wants to have children she needs financial security.

So this is an example not so much of technology but of changes to the economic system driving social change.