ABSTRACT

N a t u r a l l y related to the new ideal of marriage, which is determined by the choice of the individual and not the arrangement of parents, is the definite trend toward a later marriage age for girls. As long as a marriage is arranged by the parents, early marriage is entirely logical. The ideal of marriage by individual choice naturally necessi­ tates a later marriage age. A definite evidence that such a change is taking place and also one of the causes for the change is the longer attendance of girls in schools to-day than that of five or ten years ago. Educators in small towns as well as cities throughout the East call attention to this fact. It may mean in some cases longer education in a primary school; in some, a secondary school; elsewhere, a college or university. But in each case, the extension of the period of girls’ education registers very definitely the ascending curve of the marriage age.