SOC244H5 Lecture 4: SOC244, October 3rd, 2019
SOC244
1. Test
a. 50 multiple choice question
b. 6 short answers or essay questions
i. Can answer either by bullet points
c. Covering chapter 1-5
2. The Marriage Market, Bride Price and Dowry
a. People enter the marriage market and bargain for the best buy they can get
b. Sometimes the changes involve a bride price, that the future groom pays the
future bride’s family so he can marry her
c. More often, the exchange Is accompanied by a dowry, money or property
brought to the marriage by the female
3. Does Marriage Matter
a. On average, marriage seems to produce substantial benefits for men and women
in the form of better health, longer life, more and better sex, greater earnings (at
least for men), greater wealth and better outcomes for children
b. In contrast, married individuals in dissatisfying marriages were as likely to report
very good or good health as never-married individuals
c. Unlike in other countries, in Japan, married individuals in dissatisfying marriages
were about half as likely to report very good or good health as never-married
individuals
4. Cohabitation
a. Rates are rising for all age groups
i. Mostly for younger peoples
b. Highest rates are in Quebec
c. Younger people are more likely to cohabit, but older people are having the
largest change towards it
5. Why More Cohabitation
a. Birth control and abortion reduced “shot-gun” weddings
b. Tolerance of diverse family forms
c. Ethic of self-fulfillment over obligation, freedom over commitment
d. Men and women fear divorce
e. Law (tax, property rights)
6. Cohabitation and Marriage
a. A trail marriage?
7. Social Pressures to have Children
a. Our society has a pronatalist bias: having children is taken for granted
b. Some of the strongest pressures may come from a couple’s parents
c. Pronatalism is an ideology promoting child-bearing and glorifying parenthood,
which may include limiting access to abortion and contraception, as well as
creating financial and social incentives for the population to reproduce
d. Social script pressures couples to have children
e. The myth of motherhood says that motherhood in an instinct
