Declining Marriage Rates Under Globalization: Homogeneity Or Heterogeneity?

Around the world, marriage is undergoing massive changes. The United States has called on “saving marriage” (Popenoe, 1993; Furstenberg, 2005), the Middle East is experiencing a marriage crisis (Rashad, Osman, and Roudi-Fahimi, 2005), Latin America is seeing the rising substitution of cohabitation and single motherhood in place of marriage (Esteve, Garcia-Roman, and Lesthaeghe, 2012), and China is seeing more “sheng nu” meaning “leftover women”, a group of single women with high education and high income. A series of questions arise from these changing trends of marriage: Does globalization affect marriage the same way in the developing countries as it does in the developed countries? What causes declining marriage rates under globalization? Do these changing trends mean marriage as an institution is weakening or even disappearing? What does a marriage mean in different regions under globalization? Previous research focuses on either the declining marriage rates in the developed countries (Cherlin, 2004 and 2013; Trost, 2010) or the “flight from marriage” in the developing countries (Jones, 2005). What is missing in the current literature is a comparative perspective on this phenomenon, which can help us better understand marriage as an institution characterized by a heterogeneity (its complexities) not a homogeneity (an individually driven phenomenon). This paper explores the declining marriage trends occurring in different regions (i.e. the United States, Latin America, the Middle East, and the Southeast Asia), compare and contrast their similarities and differences, and analyze their implications for the significance of marriage as an institution. I argue that delayed marriages and declining marriage rates in the developing countries do not indicate marriage as a traditional institution is eroding, replaced by other modern alternative living arrangements. Instead, marriage is still viewed as a significant institution and its traditional characteristics are reinforced by family and economic contexts under globalization.