A Marriage Plan Without a Partner: Narrative Accounts of Marriage Timing Among the Black Middle-Class

• In Event: 1448 - Race, Gender, and Class Variations in Union Formation

Abstract

Partnering and marriage processes have undergone tremendous transformation over the past half-century. Not only have American marriage rates decreased overall, but all race/ethnic and socioeconomic groups are entering first-marriages at older ages than previous generations. Yet, the most drastic changes have been experienced by Black Americans who now marry later, on average, than any other race/ethnic group. Scholarly explanations have primarily attributed these racial disparities in marriage entry to the prevalence of poverty among Black Americans. Yet, Black middle-class adults are more likely than any of their non-Black middle-class counterparts to be single and living alone (SALA). Investigations of changes in marriage timing have neglected to explore how conceptions of gender shape understandings, explanations, and expectations of marriage timing among Black Americans. This study draws on 91 in-depth interviews with never-married and childless Black middle-class millennial men and women to examine how gender shapes notions and explanations of ideal marriage timing. Findings reveal important gender parity in marriage perspectives, including a universal reverence for marriage and desire to be married, as well as shared understandings of ideal marriage timing as being tied to ideal fertility timing and financial stability. Both men and women had a shared sense that marriage delays were the result of expanding socioeconomic opportunities for women, and consequently, a reduced need for men. Further, many respondents reported making adjustments to marriage timing in light of unexpected protracted singlehood while others reported abandoning marital desires and expectations because time had “run out.” This study builds on the body of literature exploring the cultural processes which undergird changes in partnering and marriage dynamics by expanding our understandings of how Black middle-class Americans—simultaneously among the most marriage-eligible and the least likely to be married—think through marriage timing.

Authors

• Marbella Allen, Rice university

• Jenifer L. Bratter, Rice University