A Historical Perspective on Cohabiting
Today, there are more single/cohabiting households in America than married households. Is this a fairly positive, progressive trend, or are women putting themselves and their children at a disadvantage?
This is not to discount the burdens that women must bear in marriage at all, but historically and culturally, marriage provided women with a great deal more tangible benefits than men since women did not have the freedoms that men had. Marriage, for women, provided support and subsistence, a roof over their heads, food, clothing, and the continuation of such things, necessities that women usually could not acquire on their own. Marriage meant that a woman had a man to protect her and to elevate her place in society, since women traditionally did not have as high standing as men. Marriage also meant that any children she bore would be cared for and raised properly. Marriage in essence was a protection for women and their children.
Children benefit the most from marriage. Raising children is an enormously difficult undertaking and, as any single parent can attest to, making a living and raising children is staggering difficult. It only makes practical sense for two adults to team up together to share the burdens and joys of child rearing. Taking it a step further, most societies determined that women were better suited to the task of managing the household while men were best at providing for the family. Children then benefits enormously from having both parents carrying out their respective roles rather than one parent attempting to do both.
Cohabitation, in essence, allows men and women, but primarily men, many of the benefits of marriage without the binding nature of marriage. Men can have the sexual partner, the domestic situation, and the comfort of marriage without taking that crucial step to committing permanently to one partner. While we as modern people hail the fact that men and women can now choose partners based on love and mutual interests, leave partners that prove to be violent or emotionally unstable, or simply choose to not marry at all, we would do well to recognize the enormous positive impact traditional marriage has on a family and a culture as a whole.
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