Assignment 2

Part 1: Assignment 2
While reading through the highlights section, I was interested by the various types of families that were referred in the report. Although I knew that there were several different types of household such as married-couple households, single family households and non-relative households, I was unaware of the projected numbers of certain increases and decreases of these households. As a whole the number of of family households is said to increase but certain households are projected to increase more than others. The statistic that interested and shocked me the most was that married-couple households with no children "is expected to grow by 7 million". I would like to learn more about why this is the project increase. Furthermore I never knew that single father households were different from single mother households, I had original thought that they were both considered single family households. I now see how statistics vary between single father and mother households.

After examining the chart on page 11 the data and finding were fairly in line with what I had expected. Since there are more people, I had expected that there would be more types of family. Also our lives and way of life have changed since 1995 and today the idea of the nuclear family is not as common. I was not surprised to see a decrease in two parent households with children  and an increase in other families and living alone. Although I expected an increase in living with non-relatives since many people have turned to friends and other forms of cohabitation to cut the higher cost of living.

Another reason why I expected a lot of the results was due to my own personal experience. Many of my friends live with non-relatives or have expressed a desire to spend more time with their significant other before getting married or rushing to have children. These personal experiences have helped me understand why two parent households with children are the types of families that have become less or the norm as well as had the largest percentage decrease from 1995 to 2010.

In five years I plan to be living in a household with no children either living alone or with non-relative. In 10 years I plan to be in a two parent household with hopefully my own children. When I'm 70 I plan to be living in a married couple household but with no children.

Part 2: Assignment 2
There is a great difference between women today and versus those 40 years ago; in fact in certain developed countries the change is happening much more quickly. Women 40 years ago were marrying at the age of 21, now that age has risen to 26. Since women are getting married later they are also delaying motherhood; Hymowitz stated that "in 2000, only 25 percent of [women]" were married with children at the age of 25. The main reason for these delays seems to be that more women today are looking for careers rather job. Therefore, as the article points out, this means that more and more women are entering colleges and universities in hopes of obtaining a degree that will allow them to enter the work force. Another interesting statistic was that most of these educated women are choosing to stay single and since the majority of college students are females this further explains the differences between women of today and those of 40 years ago.

When and if women do decide to marry and have children many of them are likely to not have as many children as the ancestors did. The average women has at least 2 children. However the cost of children has risen tremendously; many mothers continue to work in an effort to afford quality childcare, save for their child's schooling/college as well as to earn money for everyday life. With the stress to support and nurture her family many women may try to delay childbearing until they have a stabile job with a higher income, nevertheless the longer they wait the more fertility decline. After reading this article, I better understand the difficult decisions many women face in terms of marriage and motherhood.

As I finish school I plan on finding a teaching job fairly close to where I live now so I can still live at home while I save money for my own place, hopefully I will be able to move out within a year or so. I would love to eventually go back to school for my masters or certification in Special Education but I would want to have a solid teaching job first. As for the plan of marriage I have no set time frame, I definitely plan on getting married and having children and i suppose I would like those things to happen before I am 30 but at the moment I am putting my career goals first.

Part 3: Assignment 2
In this article I was intrigued by the section on divorce and especially the fact that there appears to be a decline since the 1980's, which was when the divorce rate peaked. Furthermore I made a connection between this article and Hymowitz's article; both mention this importance of education in determining a relationship. Hymowitz stated that being educated influenced the marriage rate and sometimes delayed marriage, this article stated that the divorce rate has actually "decreased among married couple who have college degrees" while stayed the same or increased among married couples with less education.

Before reading this section on divorce, I thought we still had a relatively high divorce rate, I definitely would not have thought that it was decreasing. In the graph on page 4, S. P Martin collected data that depicted that women who entered marriages in the 1960's and 70's had a rising probability of "permanent separation or divorce". However since there are more women with college degrees the same probability has decreased. I found this chart and other reference to Martin's data to be helpful in realizing the actually rates of divorce in todays society.