Professional Women and Marriage

This study was designed to explore the phenomenon of late marriage in a sample of highly educated professional women. Using Elder's (1972) concept that the timing of marriage is a consequence of interaction between the relative rewards and costs associated with marriage and other roles, the marital prospects and the availability of alternative roles, ten hypotheses were formulated to study the process of late marriage. It was found that, compared with normative marriers, the late-marrying women retrospectively evaluated their career goals when 20-24 years of age as relatively higher in priority than marriage. When the later marriers did decide to marry, they assumed a more egalitarian role structure than did normative marriers. Late marriers also were found to be more accepting of premarital sex and cohabitation than were normative marriers. Three factors differentiated the.family backgrounds of the lateand normative-marrying groups: (a) parental emotional and financial support for careers, (b) closeness to parents, and (c) mother's attitudes towards career.