Women, too, consider the economic side of marriage. They are just as unwilling to lower their plane of living as the men. To the average woman to marry a poor man means drudgery, for although her economic importance as a bread winner has decreased, her domestic duties have not grown correspondingly less.
Women’s class status shifts more easily than that of men. With the latter it is personal success while with the former it is the matrimonial relation that determines one’s social sphere. For this reason women consciously or unconsciously are guided in their choice of a husband by economic considerations. With the decrease of their productive capacity in the home there is a greater need on their part to consider the pecuniary side.
The marriage-rate among the rich and the very poor is little affected by economic changes. The one feels no need to curtail expenses to meet the needs of a family; the other is so hopelessly poor, especially in many of the European countries, so starved in mind and body as to be irresponsive to any but the primary animal instincts. It is the large middle classes that reflect social and economic changes and determine the type of future social institutions.
FOOTNOTES:
[67] Howard, A History of Matrimonial Institutions, I, pp. 60-61.
[68] Ibid, I, p. 115.
[69] Ward, Pure Sociology, p. 358.
[70] Morgan, Ancient Society, p. 501.
[71] Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, p. 140.
[72] Grosse, Familie und Wirthschaft, p.