Marriage Opportunities and Women's Roles in the U.S.

本研究的重点是“婚姻挤压”的一些主要后果，即适婚男女人数之间的不平衡对结婚率和离婚率、生育率和女性劳动力参与率的影响程度。这项研究涉及人口的人口特征与人口中个人的机会之间的关系等理论上重要的问题。确定女性的婚姻机会如何导致婚姻、婚姻和非婚姻生育、劳动力参与和离婚的变化，是我们理解这些社会过程的核心。这项研究还将探讨黑人和白人在婚姻和其他结果上的差异与婚姻机会之间的关系。该项目有三个主要目标。首先是确定女性的婚姻压力如何因年龄、种族、教育程度和地理区域的不同而变化。二是考察婚姻机会对结婚率、生育率、劳动力参与率和离婚率的影响。第三个目标是调查婚姻机会方面的种族差异如何导致婚姻、生育、私生子、劳动力参与和离婚方面的种族差异。将利用1980年人口普查数据和国家卫生统计中心的数据来解决这些问题。这项研究的结果将有助于澄清妇女生活研究中的主要问题。虽然社会和经济理论家认为，妇女的婚姻机会和她们所扮演的角色之间存在因果关系，但他们的理论尚未得到充分的检验。据推测，适婚男性的不足会导致低结婚率和生育率，以及更高的非婚生子率、离婚率和女性劳动力参与率。斯科特博士对这些结果进行了分析，以验证“婚姻压力是影响美国女性生活的强大力量”这一论断。这种对婚姻机会的分析对于更广泛地了解人口中的人口变化与其他社会变化之间的联系可能特别重要。

This research focuses on some principal consequences of the "marriage squeeze", the extent to which imbalances between the numbers of marriageable males and females affect marriage and divorce rates, fertility, and female labor force participation. The study addresses theoretically important questions as to the relationships between demographic characteristics of the population and opportunities of the individuals within it. Determining how women's marriage opportunities lead to variations in marriage, marital and nonmarital fertility, labor force participation and divorce is central to our understanding of these social processes. The study also will address the question of how black-white differences in marriage and other outcomes relate to marriage opportunities. The project has three major objectives. The first is to determine how the marriage squeeze for women varies by age, race, educational attainment and geographic area. The second is to examine the effect of marriage opportunities on rates of marriage, fertility, labor force participation and divorce. The third objective is to investigate how racial differences in marriage opportunities contribute to racial differences in marriage, fertility, illegitimacy, labor force participation and divorce. Both 1980 Census data and data from the National Center for Health Statistics will be drawn upon to address these question. The findings of this research will help clarify major questions in the study of women's lives. While social and economic theorists have argued that a causal link exists between women's marital opportunities and the roles they occupy, their theories have not been adequately tested. The deficit of marriageable men has been hypothesized to produce low rates of marriage and fertility and higher rates of illegitimacy, divorce and female labor force participation. Dr. Scott analyzes these outcomes to test the assertion that the marriage squeeze is a powerful force shaping the lives of American women. This analysis of marriage opportunities may be especially important in gaining a broader understanding of the links between demographic changes in the population and other societal changes.