SOCIAL MOVEMENT: MARRIAGE & AMERICA

 

Social movement is a collection of people of same thoughts against any existing problem. That group of people try to raise public awareness in that regard and hope to remove the problem from society. People feel the needs of a Social movement when there is any structural weakness in society affecting individuals directly or indirectly. Social movement drives social change or social development. A social

movement is a very important part of the social revolution.

United States of America A highly developed country with 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories. America is considered a role model for developing countries as it is the world’s largest economy and highly ranked socio-economic performance. Despite that, a deep look of the country enlightens some issues that concern the sociologist, economists, thinkers, ideologists and public policymaker.

This current pandemic has almost stopped us and ideologists are afraid of great distress after the pandemic. But this is a worldwide issue. At the present time America has some biggest issues like environmental pollution, racism, religious liberty, conservatism vs. progressivism, health care, education, immigration, election integrity etc. There is another problem that recent surveys and researches track down that socialists, economists and public policymakers are concerned about. That is marriage. Research shows that the marriage rate in America is falling, divorce is increasing, unwed relationships are about to raise along with a number of single parenting.

At first, the issue may sound irrational because we all think marriage is a personal matter and society has to do nothing about it. But numerous surveys have pointed out that marriage has a long term effect in society. Decades of statistics have shown that, on average, married couples have better physical health, more financial stability, and greater social mobility than unmarried people. 

 Marriage is considered as bonding between two persons through commitments, rituals. It is a perforce of constituting a civic society. Two people engaged in a marital relationship for love, lifetime commitment, making a lifelong commitment, companionship, having children, financial stability, for legal rights and benefits etc. it is the primary unit of society.

But it is being noticed that in America, the marriage rate is declining drastically. People are showing apathy to marriage. There are some points to look at for understanding why the marriage rate is falling. Middle-income earner and people without a college education have financial distress that holds them back from getting married.

Marriage is not only for sexual complementary rather it has responsibilities for themselves, their children, to society. It is a lifetime commitment between two social human being. It seems that in this era, some people are not willing to take this responsibility or this commitment.

Unwed the relationship is also a prime reason behind people have less interest in getting married. Divorced people lose faith in a marital relationship and often hold their back from re-marriage. The unhappy marital relationship of parents imprints a deep impact that often when they grow older, they are not really fall for marriage.

This issues ultimately putting a long-term negative impact on the society and economy as well. So, let’s try to take a look at how this issue is affecting the society. American Economic Review published a study that revealed that married men work longer hours and earn more money and in terms of productivity, they are about 26% better than single men.

There is a positive relationship between marriage and economic security. Married people are better off financially secured than those who are unmarried. Because a married couple tends to save more money for their and their children’s future. So, they are kind of prepared for economic distress.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that the marriage rate in the United States has fallen to its lowest level in recorded history in 2018; that is 6.5 marriage per 1,000 people.

Along with this downtrend of marriage rate; divorce and unwed relationship are increasing. Studies show the single parent and unwed childbearing costs, taxpayers, over $110 billion each year. But real victim here is the children, single parenting is more likely tends children to abuse drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy, poor social behaviour and even commit the crime. Furthermore, marriage can reduce child poverty by up to 80%.

Now the question arises, “how can we raise a social movement in this regard?” The redemptive social movement can assist to sort out this issue i.e. provoking a social movement through enhancing individuals’ implicit thoughts and beliefs. This movement will be focused on encouraging people to marriage and if this movement succeeds, the economy will boost up and society will be a better place to live in for us especially for our future generations.

Researchers shows some way to deal with these issues. Like bringing some necessary amendments in the public policy. The government can help by eliminating the marriage penalty. The government can assist through providing temporary help to families in need. Awareness program can be conducted by the community organizations in school and colleges. If young generations understand the importance of marriage, cost of the broken family they in future hold their back from marriage. Religious institutions can perform a significant role here. People who respect their religious value will be influenced and be interested in marriage if they are listening to this issue from their respective religious institutions.

A social movement cannot remove this problem from the root because no one cannot force anybody to get married. But despite that, attempts should be made. Because if this downtrend continues, the government will be forced out to eliminate the laws in favour of marriage and we will face the devasting consequences in our entire society.