ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several topics that illustrate how the two sexes are sometimes at odds with each other. A major preoccupation of social scientists in recent years has been to explain the recent decline in marriage rates in Western industrial societies, especially in the US Divorce rates in nearly all industrial societies have risen sharply over the past forty years, especially in the US, where divorces per 1,000 married women increased over 1,500 percent between 1960 and 1988. Indeed, virtually all of the divorces granted before age 20 are initiated by women. One of the more attractive proximate explanations of rising divorce rates takes into account the increased participation of women in the labor force. Divorce is frequently followed by remarriage, though in keeping with declines in marriage rates, the rate of remarriage has also declined, especially in European nations. The different manners in which the factors affect remarriage prospects are strikingly consistent with predictions derived from fitness theory.
