marriage

How did Work Invade Our Idea of Marriage?

Why would people understand marriage through the frame of work and expect to be happy? Historian Kristin Celello explains the alternatives. 

Does Marital Status Discrimination Hold the Key to Protecting Sexual Freedoms from SCOTUS?

by Marc Stein

As concern rises that the court might revoke the rights to same-sex marriage and contraception while reinstating the criminalization of gay sex, advocates for reproductive and sexual freedom need to consider how to make the equal protection argument that rights individuals enjoy in marriage can't be denied to individuals outside of them. 

The Enlightenment Precursor of the Social Media "Wife Guy"

by Meghan Roberts

The "wife guy" who self-servingly projects an image of domestic bliss and romantic devotion is not just a creation of the social media age. 

The Golden Age of "Traditional Marriage" Never Was

by Lauren Gutterman

Despite conservative mythologizing, married Americans in the postwar era frequently sought and secured space to explore same-sex attractions and relationships. These histories show that regardless of who controls the Supreme Court, conservatives will be unable to force a narrow model of family life on the public. 

Bernard Cohen, Lawyer Who Won Victory for Interracial Marriage in Loving V. Virginia, Dies at 86

“I knew it was going to be a landmark case,” Mr. Cohen told the Associated Press in 1992. “And I definitely thought there was something serendipitous about the fact that the case would be called Loving vs. the Commonwealth of Virginia.”

The Mrs. Files

The honorific "Mrs." has a complex history reflecting changing social values and gender roles.   

Rethinking Polygamy: An Interview with Sarah M.S. Pearsall

by Kyla Sommers

"Polygamy controversies place us amid major events in early America because such clashes were about the organization and governance not just of house- holds but of societies, nations, and empires.”

Enslaved Couples Faced Wrenching Separations, or Even Choosing Family Over Freedom

by Tera W. Hunter

Loved ones could be sold away at any time. Here's how married couples coped.

Where Did the Indigenous Community Mothers Go?

by Candace Wellman

Indigenous community mothers seem to have been an uncomfortable truth for historians and other writers that did not fit with the Euro-American mythology they sought to build around “the first white woman” in town. The result was their now-conspicuous absence.

Why the Royal Family Used to Forbid Marriage After Divorce

Until 2002, the Church of England, of which the monarch is the head, would not recognize the marriage of any divorced person whose ex-spouse was still living.

Han Chinese Marriage: A Lesson for Chief Justice John Roberts

by Andrew Meyer

Marriage has evolved (much more recently than most people imagine) to become a relationship between equals, thus there is no justification to exclude same-gender couples from the marital bond.

A New Right Grounded in the Long History of Marriage

by David M. Perry

Citing the work of historians that demonstrates the constant evolution of the institution, the U.S. Supreme Court decides to recognize a constitutional right to same-sex unions.

They do: The scholarly about-face on marriage

Is marriage necessary?

Census Bureau’s Plan to Cut Marriage and Divorce Questions Has Academics Up in Arms

If the Census Bureau proceeds with a recently released plan, then in a few years’ time, we will know very little about how the contours of family life are changing.

Stephanie Coontz: "Marriages require much more maturity than they once did."

New research indicates that cohabitation does not cause divorce.

Stephanie Coontz: Marriages divided by class

Marriage increasingly seen out of reach to all but educated elite.