ABSTRACT
It may be that in many societies today marriage is an option. Although most people still marry, they may do so after considerable debate about whether they should. Also, the pity and stigma that often were visited on single people have diminished. For example, whereas a 1957 survey showed that 80 percent of the people thought that those who chose to stay single were “sick,” “neurotic,” and “immoral,” by 1977 only 25 percent agreed with that judgment (Coontz, 1992, p. 186).
